


Stardust

by Khaleesi_0f_Trolls



Category: Castlevania (Cartoon)
Genre: Adoption, Angst, F/M, Just four idiots on their way to murder Dracula, Mild Language, Vlad and Lisa adopt a kid Lisa finds on her way home
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-07-04
Updated: 2020-02-18
Packaged: 2020-06-03 12:32:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 13
Words: 30,058
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19464064
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Khaleesi_0f_Trolls/pseuds/Khaleesi_0f_Trolls
Summary: ❝She is made of stardust, her eyes reflect starlight, and when she cracks it escapes and shines through for all to see.❞





	1. |•| The Beginning |•|

Cold, everything was just so cold. Stela so badly wanted to slip back inside the church, maybe rekindle some of the candles to warm her up a bit, but what if mama came back when she was inside? She made a promise, one that she swore to keep to her mama before she pushed her inside the abandoned church and rushed away towards the mountains.

"I could bring a candle outside with me...maybe then mama could see the light when she comes." She murmured as she stood up from the steps to stretch her aching legs and shook them a bit to get some feeling back into them before turning to enter the old church.

Inside was cold and drafty, but not as cold as it was outside. Stela moved quickly to the front of the church where she slept, hoping that she had at least one of the more bigger candles she sometimes used to keep warm and keep the darkness away. She always hated sitting in the dark, it always left like some sort of demon was going to come out of the shadows and kill her before she even knew what was happening.

She managed to find the small knife her mother gave her and used it to defend herself, but there was a bit of a problem when the knife didn't make sparks like it normally did. Seeing that the blade had become dull, she proceeded to walk out of the church to find a rock to sharpen it like her mother showed her.

"Oh!" Stela stopped in her tracks, already halfways out the door when she saw a strange woman outside the steps of the church.

"I'm so sorry, I wasn't expecting anyone to come out of that old church." The woman apologized quickly as Stela shifted back a bit in fear. "Don't worry, I won't hurt you. Here, are you hungry?" The woman pulled a half a loaf of bread from the satchel she carries and held it out to her. "I have more if you still feel hungry, and some jerky strips if you want something to add for flavor.

"I...mama says I'm not supposed to accept things from strangers." Stela said softly, even though she could feel her stomach growl in protest.

"Where's your mother?" The woman asked. "I have some more food if the two of you need some to eat."

"Mama said she'd be back, she told me to stay right here." Stela replied quietly as she gripped the candle tightly in her little hand. "I promised I wouldn't leave this place until she came back to get me. Some mean people were chasing us, screaming and yelling mean things at my mama."

The woman's eyes widened in surprise and quickly moved up the stairs to where Stela was standing. "You mean you've been here all on your own? Where's your father?"

"Gone. I don't know where my aunties are at either, we got separated from them when we were running away."

"Oh you poor thing…" the woman knelt down to the girl's level and held the bread out to her. "Here, you must be very hungry, and I'm sure your mother would not mind if you had something to eat while she's gone. Would you like me to stay here with you until she comes back?"

"Can you?" Stela asked, her little face lighting up.

The older woman smiled. "Of course. I'm Lisa Tepes, and you are?"

"I'm Stela!"

💫💫🌟💫💫

"Wow! That's a big house!"

Lisa chuckled to herself as she watched Stela gawk at the sight of the castle. "That's actually a castle, it's a very big and fancy house. Much nicer than a church too."

"Do you live here?" Stela asked as Lisa led her up the stairs of the castle. "Do all castles look like this?"

"I do live here, with my husband and our son, I'm sure they'd love to meet you. And no, not all castles look like this."

Stela stayed close to Lisa as they reached the top of the stairs and pushed open the huge doors to take her inside. The inside of the castle was large too, and felt very empty as well.

"Vlad, I'm home! And I brought someone!" Lisa called as she held Stela close to her.

"Lisa, why do you have a human child with you?" Stela gave a startled gasp and pressed closer to Lisa as a tall and pale skinned man draped in a black cloak stepped right out of the shadows. He frowned in her direction as he approached them, and Stela could see the pointed ears, fangs, and the bright red eyes.

"Hello dear, and I brought her with me, she needs a place to stay." Lisa responded, obviously not bothered or frightened by this strange man. "This is Stela, and she'll be staying with us."

"That's a vampire." Stela said quietly as she pressed herself closer to Lisa in fear.

"Yes I am, thank you for observing." The vampire muttered. "Lisa, why on Earth did you even bring her here, where are her parents?"

"She's alone Vlad, she's been waiting for her mother on the steps of an old abandoned church. We had been waiting there for two days before I realized the poor woman must be dead. I asked someone in one of the towns I was passing through knew what happened to a woman named Joan and they told me she was killed and burned for apparently being a witch."

"Another reason I dislike humans, they turn on each other the second one hears something bad about the other." The old vampire sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose. "Lisa, I love you very much, but I don't know if I can tolerate having a human _child_ in the castle. There's areas she can't even go into because she might get hurt in some way, and what if her family comes looking for her? Do you think they'd take her back when they found out she slept under the same roof as someone like me?"

"Stela says she has aunt's, but doesn't know where they are, and I'm beginning to suspect they are also dead." Lisa gave Stela's shoulder a small squeeze. "She needs a home Vlad, I couldn't bear to leave her alone to starve and probably die of hunger and cold on the steps of an abandoned church. Besides, Adrien has been wanting someone to play with if we're too busy."

The vampire studied the child, taking in her soft brown hair that was matted and dirty, her dirt covered face, her wide green eyes that stared back at him in fear and curiosity, before he released a sigh of defeat.

"Fine, she may stay. But you'll have to keep an eye on her."

Lisa smiled proudly. "Don't worry, I'll make sure she's alright. Where is Adrien, I want to introduce him to his new friend."

"Upstairs in his room, taking a nap. He's been trying to see if he could stay awake at night like me but I keep finding him passed out in the library in the middle of the night." Vlad replied, gesturing to the stairs. "Stela, that's an interesting name. Did you know it means starlight in Romanian?"

"Yes, mama told me!" Stela responded, her little face lighting up. "She liked to call me her little star!"

Lisa saw her husband's lips twitch into a smile. "I could see why."

Lisa soon led Stela away towards the bedrooms, keeping the child close to her. They soon approached one bedroom and stepped inside, and she made sure the door was kept slightly open behind them.

In this room was a little boy, about two or perhaps three years younger than Stela, his long blonde hair pulled back in a ponytail as he laid on his bed with a book in his hands. Stela couldn't read the title of the book, but it must have been quite interesting since the child didn't even look up until Lisa cleaned her throat loudly.

"Mama!" The boy cried out when he lowered his book and quickly placed it down to jump off the bed and run to hug Lisa. "I missed you! The castle felt empty without you and very boring! Did you being a present?"

"I missed you too my little boy." Lisa laughed as she bent down to kiss his forehead. "I completely forgot to bring a little something from my trip, but I did bring someone you should meet. This is Stela."

Stela raised her hand and gave the child a little wave. "Hi."

"His name is Adrien, say hello darling."

"H-hi…" the little boy said in a soft voice it was almost a whisper.

Stela felt her heart swell as the little boy moved out from behind his mother's skirts, ran over to her and threw his arms around her waist in a hug. She couldn't help but smile as she put her arms around him to return the hug.

"Are you gonna be my big sister?" Adrien asked Stela excitedly. "I kept asking mama and papa for a sister, and they haven't gotten one yet! And we need a girl so mama won't be lonely and sober can be even!"

"I...I guess I can be your big sister?" Stela said, quite unsure. "I don't know how long I'll be staying here, but I can try to be a sister for you. I don't have any siblings of my own either."

"I can be your brother then! Do you like to read?"

"I don't know how to read."

Adrien gave a loud gasp. "Mama she needs to learn how to read! Come on, I'll take you to the library!"

Lisa watched as her soon took his new friend's hand and pulled her out of the room, passing Vlad, who had been standing in the doorway of the bedroom.

"Seems like he's warned up to her quite quickly." He said with a hint of a smile on his face. "Never thought I'd witness the day you brought a human child into our house and our son declared them as their older sibling."

"I'm sure in time she'll get used to being around you dear, just like I have." Lisa assured him as she walked over to him and took his hand. "She can stay as long as she likes, and we'll raise her as our own. Adrien needs a friend of his own,and who better to be friends than her?"

"I suppose having a human as a daughter wouldn't be so bad then."


	2. |•| The Burning of Lisa Tepes |•|

**|•| Several Years Later |•|**

"Mother will be so surprised when she sees what we got her!" Stela giggled as she clutched the cloth covered basket to her chest. "Do you think she'll like food we bought?"

Adtien, who was walking besides her gave a small shrug. "I'm sure she would, we bought it."

" _I_ bought it. The baker wouldn't even sell it to you because you creeped him out!" Stela corrected him and swatted his arm with the basket. "You bought the cheese because the woman selling it was blind!"

"Mud puddle, watch your step." Adrien warned as he held a hand out to stop her. "Don't get that dress mother made you dirty, it's hard to wash mud out of silk."

Stela gave a small chuckle as she pushed her brother's hand down and handed him the basket to walk around the large puddle, lifting the skirt high enough to avoid touching the ground. Of course she wasn't going to get this dress dirty, it was a birthday gift from both their parents and she wasn't about to ruin it by stepping on mud.

"Is something burning?" Stela asked when her brother crossed the puddle. "Oh my god I see smoke!"

"Either someone is burning dinner, or a local's house is on fire."

"Wait...oh my god that's where mother's house is!"

Adrien's eyes widened in horror and grabbed his sister's arm as she yanked him towards the black smoke. By the time they got there the house was still in flames and they could see several people surrounding the burning structure and some were even cheering loudly.

"You there! What happened, why is everyone cheering at the sight of that house burning?" Adrien asked as he grabbed a man back from the crowd and turned him to face them. "Talk!"

"The-the woman living there is going to be burned!" The man sputtered. "Bishop said she was a witch, even had strange devices of black magic in her home!"

"Where did they take her?" Stela asked. When the man didn't answer, Adrien released him, only for his sister to storm forward and grab the man by the front of his shirt. "Talk now you fucking piece of scum!"

"Stela-"

"The cathedral! They're probably burning her right now!"

Stela dropped the man and grabbed her brother's arm to move from the crowd.

"Stela father said-"

"Not to go near churches, I know Adrien! But mother needs us!"

By the time they reached the town, the two could see the black smoke from the cathedral and the smell of burning flesh reached their noses soon. Adrien gagged at the smell as his sister tried to block it off with her cloak, but it didn't seem to help. They stood near the entrance of the old church, watching as people were changing and praying loudly as their mother stood tied to the middle of a bonfire crying out.

"Please! Please be better than them!" She cried out. Stela felt her heart almost stop at the sight.

"No...no mother! Adrien we have to save her!" She cried as she tried to step into the church.

"We can't!" Adrien hissed as he grabbed her arm and pulled her back from the crowd. "We can't expose ourselves like this, what do you think they'll do to us if they found out we are her children? We will surely suffer the same fate as our mother."

Stela couldn't bear watching the burning and buried her face into her brother's shoulder, desperately trying to ignore the screams of their mother as she cried out in pain.

"I want to go home, please..." Stela begged as she clung to her brother for comfort. "Mother wouldn't want us to be here to watch her suffer."

Adrien cast one last look to the bonfire, and for a moment he swore that his mother was looking straight at them.

_I'm so sorry mother..._

"Let's go." Adrien ordered as he put his arm around Stela to pull her away from the church.

💫💫🌟💫💫

The whole journey home Stela wouldn't stop crying. By the time they reached the castle she was silent, her cheeks stained with tears she shed for their mother, and Alucard wished he could do something to make her feel better. But how could one comfort their sibling after they witnessed their mother burn for false accusations of being a witch?

"We'll have to tell father when he comes home." Stela murmured as they shut the doors of the castle behind them. "He's not going to be too happy, and who knows what he'll do when he finds out what the church has done."

"We should have left the castle earlier like you suggested." Adrien murmured. "Perhaps we...we could have saved her and brought her home."

"There's nothing we can do now, except maybe try and keep father from going mad." Stela said and placed a hand on his shoulder. Adrien smiled weakly, but before he could say anything, they heard a loud and angry roar from upstairs.

"That's not good." Adrien muttered.

"He's home, and he doesn't sound too happy." Stela said with a nod.

Both ran up the stairs and hurried to their father's study room, finding the vampire surrounded by broken pieces of wood and pieces of his magic mirror floating around him.

"One year, one year for me to raise an army from hell to make them pay!" He snarled angrily.

"No!" Adrien shouted as he strode into the room.

"Father please! Don't do this!" Stela begged as she hurried in after her brother. "Don't punish all the humans for something one person did!"

"Those humans took her! They took the one person who made their existence tolerable!" The vampire snarled. "I am giving them one year to redeem themselves, and if they haven't I'm setting my army of death upon them!"

"I won't let you! I'll mourn with you and my sister, but I won't stand by and watch you slaughter innocents!" Adrien snapped. "Listen to yourself!"

Without warning, Dracula gave a loud yell and threw himself at the two, his claws outstretched. Alucard shoved Stela to the side and threw himself at his father, giving out a loud cry of pain when his father's nails slashed the front of his chest. Stela let out a terrified scream when her brother fell to the floor with a groan, their father standing over him with blood dripping from his hands.

"You want to defile me, boy?" The vampire snarled as he grabbed Adrien by the throat and lifted him high into the air. "If you cared about your mother, you wouldn't stop.me from cleansing this world of those humans!"

Stela didn't know what overcame her, perhaps it was fear for her brother, or the fear of Dracula killing her brother and killing her next, but she ran forward to grab his arm.

"Father stop! Please stop!" Stela screamed. "Stop it! Look at yourself, mother would not have wanted you to be acting like this!"

"None of those humans did anything to save your mother, both your mothers are dead because of those humans!" Dracula snarled angrily. "After all these years, you still care about the people who hurt the woman who died trying to save you, and the ones who killed the woman who became your second mother?"

"Not all humans are like that, not all think the way that bishop and his followers think! Please don't kill my brother, I'm begging you!" Stela cried as she clutched his hand. "Please don't kill him!"

She was so sure he was going to strangle Adrien and then kill her too, but much to Stela's shock and relief, Dracula released her brother and lowered his arm. The half vampire coughed and gasped for air when he hit the floor, his sister dropping to the floor to pull him into her arms.

"Get out." Stela looked up to see Dracula with his back to her. "You and your brother have one year to get away from here as far as possible, and never return. For the sake of your mother I'm not going to kill either of you, but heed my warning and leave now."

"Yes sir." Stela said quietly as she carefully helped her brother to his feet and dragged him out of the room.

💫💫🌟💫💫

"We can't leave, we have to stop him." Adrien mumbled and hissed in pain as his sister pressed the already bloody cloth to his chest. "I can self heal you know."

"I'm cleaning the wound up, I'm not going to have you walk around with a blood covered chest even if you are self healing." Stela retorted as she wring the cloth out and dropped it into the small stone bowl of clean water. "It's not healing as fast as it used to, and that's worrying me."

"I'll be fine, and I'm sorry for dirtying your dress."

"It's just a dress, I can just wash the blood out."

Stela hadn't even noticed the drying blood on the front of her dress until her brother pointed it out, but chose to ignore it. Cleaning her brother up was more important than this dress at the moment. If the wound hadn't healed soon she was now considering using the material to bandage Adrien's chest in case the bleeding was not stopping and the wound wasn't healing as quickly as it was supposed to.

"You remember that old Speaker story we heard a few years back, the one about Dracula?" Adrien asked as Stela finished cleaning the wound and winced. "Oh that's certainly going to leave a nasty scar."

"Oh hush, at least it was your chest and not your face. You probably would have lost an eye if he aimed higher." Stela scolded. "And yes I remember that old story, how a hunter and a scholar were to help some sort of sleeping soldier who sleeps under one of the old cities and together the three of them will defeat Dracula and drive away the creatures of the night. What about it?"

"I think that old story will be coming true soon, but how many vampire hunters are there that are still alive?"

Stela tapped her chin in thought. "When I was little I remember hearing about this one family who specialized in killing monsters, especially vampires. Originated in France, and moved here a few centuries back,

"The Belmonts, and I remember hearing how they despise our father."

"Aren't the Belmonts dead? Mother mentioned a few years back about how they became excommunicated and their home was burned down as well. No one knows if there are any left."

"Then I suppose I should look for another hunter, as for a scholar I'd probably have to find one that won't try and kill me on sight."

Stela saw her brother's lips twitch in a smile and took his hand into hers. "Adrien, I'm not leaving the country, I'm staying here but I'll try and find this hunter and scholar you need. But where can we find this sleeping soldier?"

"I'm not sure, but there's a place under a city where the sleeping soldier rests, but the last time I was out I saw it was actually some sort of tomb that looked like the inside of the castle." Adrien responds and gingerly touches the wound. "I think I'm supposed to be down there, be the sleeping soldier and await the hunter and scholar to find me. I'm going to find it, and wait there. What will you do in the meantime?"

"Find this hunter and scholar before the year is up before the army of demons come upon us, learn how to defend myself, and keep a low profile wherever I go."

The dhampir nods before taking his sister's hands in his. "Please be careful Stela, I'd never forgive myself if something happened to you. Grow strong,learn to fight so we can fight together and defend our mother's people."

Stela nods and gives his hands a small squeeze. "You be careful too little brother, I'll try to find where you are at before the year is up and have some help."


	3. |•| The Hunter |•|

**|•| One Year Later |•|**

"Where is Gresit anyways?" Stela mutters to herself as she tries to examine her soggy and poor excuse of a map. "Fuck I don't think I drew this thing right, and if I don't find this town before a year is up I'll never find my brother."

It had been a year since the two Tepes siblings parted ways, Adrien going one way and Stela going the other with the promise of finding each other as soon as they year was up. As she promised, Stela had learned how to fight, picking up a thing or two from people in bars who got into fights over the littlest things, learning how to wield and throw knives from an old man who she stayed with a few weeks who gave her a small box of silver daggers that were apparently enchanted or blessed. Even her appearance had changed, her once long hair she liked to keep pulled back in a braid or with a ribbon was now cut short to her ears, and she traded simple dresses for loose tunics, trousers and boots with a heavy cloak thrown on to shield herself from the rain and cold.

Stela laughed to herself at how startled her poor brother was going to be when he saw her again, and probably hearing her swear loudly in a manner she never used before was probably going to have him cringe. As she was walking, Stela could see what looked like a town in the distance. Perhaps there she could ask for directions to Gresit, get a warm meal and find somewhere warm to sleep. 

_ Just my luck, and maybe at this rate I'll be able to find my brother. _ Stela thought to herself as she rolled up the soggy map and tucked it away into her satchel.  _ It's been a year already, and I still haven't found a hunter or a scholar to- OH FUCK! _

Stela wasn't even sure if she was seeing things, but upon closer look she realized she wasn't. Laying under a tree was a man, draped in a dark cloak with fur and not even moving or breathing at all.

_ Is he dead? _ Stela wondered as she picked up a small stick from the ground and poked the man's cheek. The man gave a loud snort, startling her and she quickly leapt back and held the stick out in front of her in defense.

"Who the fuck thought it was a brilliant idea to wake up an armed man?" The stranger muttered in a gruff voice as he turned over on his side. "Leave me be, I'm not ready to deal with anyone while fighting this hangover."

"Then you shouldn't drink too much." Stela muttered. She must have spoken a little too loud because the man stiffened and rolled over on his other side, now very wide awake. Stela stiffened and pointed her stick at the man. "Stay back! I-I'm armed! I have a knife in my boot!"

The man squinted at her before his lips twitched into a smile and gave a laugh. "Relax, I'm not going to even try touching you. But I'm willing to bet you don't have a knife in your-" The man's next words were cut off when a small silver knife came flying at him and embedded itself in the tree right close to his face. "Well shit, you weren't kidding."

"And there's more where that came from." Stela stated and shifted back. "Now hand it back."

"Too scared to get if yourself?"

"I'm not going to walk over there to bend over a drunk to grab my knife back."

"Fine." The man plucked the knife from the tree, tossed it over to her and it landed near her feet. "Now can I go back to sleep? I'm trying to sleep through this hangover so I can deal with people later."

"No, I may need your help."

The man gave a frustrated groan but remained where he was. "What the fuck do you want then?"

"I need to get to Gresit, my map is too wet to read and I need to get there soon." Stela responded and the man muttered something under his breath before trying to get to his feet. Stela could see what looked like a whip strapped to one him and a sword strapped to the other when the stranger stood up.

"Why should I help you?" The man asked as he yawned and stretched. "How do I know you're not trying to mug me?"

"Would a thief try to mug an armed man who has a sword and a whip?" Stela responded and folded her arms over her chest. "I'm just asking you for your help, it's not like I'm asking you to do something weird. I just need to get to Gresit soon, and it'd be better if I was traveling with a companion too. I'll pay you, I've got money."

"First time a woman offered me money to take her somewhere." The man snorts, to which Stela shakes her head in disgust. "And before you ask, I'm Trevor."

"Stela. And please, no vulgar jokes. I'm not some barmaid or milkmaid who giggles at all your jokes to make you like her better."

"Fine, whatever the lady wishes."

💫💫🌟💫💫

Trevor never really liked traveling with other people, since for some reason all those who walked with him in the last seemed to think it was a great idea and talk his ear off the whole journey. So far this Stela woman seemed to think it was better to walk in silence except for the occasional "watch your step" and pull him out of the way from stepping on a nasty smelling puddle or stepping what looked like horse shit in the middle of the road. Though he was a bit curious as to why she even bothered asking him for help, and why she was wandering the countryside alone with no one else.

"I'd hate to be nosy, but why are you even traveling alone?" The hunter decided to ask, deciding the silence was already annoying him.

"Am I not supposed to be traveling the roads alone or on foot?" Stela responded.

"Just curious."

"Well I'm looking for someone, and they're supposed to be in Gresit. I just hope I can find them soon."

"It's been dangerous lately to be traveling alone at night and unarmed, especially as of a few days ago."

"Well I am armed, but maybe one of these days I should get myself a dog to travel with next time I travel by foot somewhere."

They continued to walk in silence until they reached the town Stela had seen earlier. It was a simple town, not much to look at with a small tavern, and a few of the locals out on the streets.

"We should get inside, at least get some food too." Trevor commented as they walked to the tavern. "I could use some good ale to warm me up a bit."

"I never drank ale before, is it any good?" Stela asked as he pushed open the door of the tavern and stepped aside for her to enter.

"Depends on who makes it. One time I nearly downed a tankard of one only to realize it was actually some nasty shit mixed with piss. I couldn't even look at a cup again for two weeks."

Stela gave a small laugh as they walked to a table and seated themselves. "Poor you. One time I actually ate a raw potato, thinking it would taste like an apple."

"Why would you do that?"

"My father told me that in another part of the world, potatoes are called earth apples. I've always eaten cooked and peeled potatoes before so I thought if I ate one uncooked and with the skin it'd taste like an apple. God I was so wrong!"

The two burst out laughing, earning some strange looks from the other patrons in the bar. A few moments later a bartender came to their table.

"Alright are either of you two going to order anything?"

"I'll have some ale." Trevor responded.

"Alright then, and anything for you miss?" The bartender asked, turning to Stela.

"No ale for me, not a drinker. But if you have some food to eat and some clean water that'll be fine."

"Sorry, we're not serving food at this hour, we stopped about an hour ago."

"Shit…" Stela muttered. "Fine, make that a tankard of ale, a cup of water and put it on his tab."

"You said you weren't a drinker." Trevor stated as the bartender walked off to get their drinks.

"You're drinking that, not me. Also felt like I had to at least order something from the man so I'm not sitting here like an idiot."

"You're too nice."

"What can I say, I was raised that way."

Their drinks were soon brought, two tankards of ale and a cup with some weird colored liquid.

"The hell is this?" Trevor asks, picking the cup up to examine its contents. "The lady asked for water, this looks like watered down piss."

"That's water." The bartender replied with a frown. "We don't really have any clean water around these parts."

"It's fine, I'll just drink the ale." Stela said quickly and pushed the cup away. "Don't mind him, my...brother was dropped on his head as a child, it caused him to forget his manners."

"Brother, seriously?" Trevor laughed as the bartender walked away. "You and I don't even look alike, no one is going to believe that little lie."

"I don't even look like my own brother, complete opposites and yet no one questions it when they see us traveling together on the road." Stela retorts. "But you're right, no one would believe someone as ugly as you would be related to me."

"Oh that's hurtful, you wound me little sister. Now be a good girl and drink that ale I'm paying for before I drink it myself."

Stela rolled her eyes before grabbing the tankard and putting it to her lips. The drink smelled foul, like something out of one of the bottles of weird chemicals in Dracula's lab. And the taste of it was horrid. Stela felt like she was pouring something almost as nasty as one of her mother's cough relief remedies she and Adrien had to drink as children when they were sick. She quickly put the tankard down and shoved it towards Trevor.

"Ugh this is nasty! How can you stand drinking this?!"

"It's not that bad, you just have to chug it." Trevor says, trying so hard not to laugh as he takes the discarded tankard from her.

"Don't laugh, I've never drank it before." Stela muttered as she took the cup of water and took a sip. "Well at least this tastes better."

The two watched as other people came in and out of the tavern, some younger men coming over to their table, only to quickly walk in the other direction when Trevor glared at them. Some women even flocked over, being very flirty with him while Stela tried to ignore them and focused on trying to redraw her now dry map.

After a while the amount of people in the tavern dwindled down to just them, the bartender, and three other men. The one of the two men at the bar was especially loud, going on and on about something that had to do with his goats, which Trevor and Stela decided to ignore until the man started complaining about some man who claimed a goat was in love with him.

Trevor watched as Stela cringed at the loud conversation and couldn't help but laugh to himself.

"Why do they have to be so loud?" She muttered.

"And why are you listening?" Trevor asked with a small laugh before taking a drink from his tankard.

"Old habit, people at taverns normally have something interesting to talk about that could help me. But the most boring of conversations have nothing to do with men fucking other farmers goats." She responds with a frown. "I'm stepping outside to see if I can ask around about something, I'm not staying here drinking some weird ale that reeks of piss and listening to you ramble on about some weird bullshit."

"It's not the ale, you were probably sitting on a chair someone pissed on a few hours before."

Stela swatted at his head, earning another laugh from the hunter as she quickly brushed off the back of her cloak and stormed out of the tavern.

Trevor rolled his eyes before taking another sip of his drink. She'll be back, hopefully before he got too drunk to walk and distinguish one person from another. As he continued to drink, he tried to tune out the talk coming from the two men who were talking about goats. Didn't they have anything else to talk about aside from what idiot tried fucking a farm animal this week?

As he was drinking the last of his ale, Trevor heard someone run in and start rambling about a hoard of something sweeping towards the west, probably coming in their direction and closing in on Gresit. Wasn't that where Stela wanted to go to meet up with someone?

_ Might have to try to talk her out of going there then. _ The hunter thought to himself as he looked to the bottom of his tankard, rather annoyed that the bartender hadn't come to refill it.  _ But the question is, would she listen? She seemed quite hell-bent on reaching Gresit so soon, but maybe we could stay here or on the outskirts of the town to avoid getting to Gresit in the middle of the night when the hoad is- wait why the fuck do I even care? _

Trevor was soon broken out of his train of thought when he heard one of the men at the bar, the one rambling on earlier about goats, talking about how it was the great houses and noble families who were to blame for bringing Dracula's wraith down on the poor people.

"And the Belmonts? They should have killed all the Belmonts." The man sneered.

"Shit…" Trevor muttered to himself. If these men found out who he was there was bound to be a fist fight waiting to happen. And even if he denied being a Belmont, he was still wearing a shirt with the family emblem on his chest and on his back.

He was starting to get tired from the man's rambling about how bad the Belmonts and the noble families were for having all the power and going to war with each other with the poor folk stuck in the middle of their fights. And the fact that the bartender  _ still  _ hadn't come to refill his drink because he was listening to some idiot's rambling was really starting to irk him. With an annoyed sigh, he got right up from his seat and walked over to the bar. Might as well shut up the man there while he was at it.

"Sorry, can I get my ale?" He asked when he reached the bar. "It's just that I think I'm sobering up."

"Alright, alright, but I want to see some coin from you now." The bartender replied. "And you better also pay for that cup of water as well the lass from earlier ordered as well."

Trevor grunted and reached for the coin purse he had tied to his belt neat his sword, only to find it not there. Did he lose it? He reached past his sword to find it not there either before reaching to his other side to see if it was there. If he had lost his money he might have to go outside and drag that girl back into the tavern to pay for their drinks.

_ There you are.  _ Trevor thought triumphantly to himself as he managed to find his coin purse.

"Oi! What's that on your chest?" The goat man asked in a rather rude manner.

"My shirt." Trevor retorted and held the money out to show he at least had it. "Just one more tankard, ey? Just to keep me warm while I find a tree for me to sleep under."

"That's a family crest, I know it." The man sneered, pushing past his friend to stand next to Trevor.

"I don't. Just one more drink and then I'll leave, alright?"

"That's a Belmont crest!" The goat man was now very close to Trevor and he was looking ready to deck him any second.

"Really?" Trevor asked before turning to the bartender and tossed his whole coin purse onto the able. "Look, here's the money."

"You're a Belmont aren't you?" Goat man asked. "House of Belmont, family Belmont!"

This man just didn't know when to shut up did he? "Never met them." Trevor responded and rubbed his forehead. "Listen, forget it, I'll just go."

"No! You're a Belmont! This is all your fault!" The man snarled as he gave him a hard shove.

"I don't know what you're talking about."

"Yes you do. Everyone knows the Belmonts dealt in black magic, the Belmonts dealt with monsters."

"The Belmonts fought monsters son- so I'm told. This is just an old shirt."

Trevor was now starting to think he was going to get into another bar fight again, and this was probably the fifth one this week alone. Stela was outside, doing who knows what and he wasn't even sure if he wanted her in here to have her witness him get his ass kicked by four men. If they managed to knock him out they'd probably go after her, and who knows what they'd do to her if she couldn't fight them off on her own with that little silver knife of hers.

_ I've hardly known this girl for barely a day, and yet here I am worried for her. What's with that? Better leave before a fist fight broke out over something stupid I didn't even do. _

"I'm leaving." Trevor muttered, holding his hands up. "Okay? I'm leaving now."

"So you can lead your monster friends back here?" Goat man asked, stopping Trevor again.

"So I can find somewhere to piss and somewhere to sleep." He retorted, his patience already starting to wear thin.

Out of the corner of his eye, Trevor saw the tavern door open and Stela slipped inside quiet as a cat. She gave him a confused look when she saw the four men grouped near him and he gave her a small shrug.

"You can sleep right here, you and your little companion when she comes back into this bar." Good, they were too busy focusing on him to have seen her enter.

"You haven't even got your shovel." Trevor taunted. And with that,the man threw his fist, hitting him square in the face.

"I don't need it. Confess and I'll make it quick." Goat man sneered. "What's your name?"

"Jesus of Nazareth. Look, I'm carrying a short sword, and a whip." The fact that the man wasn't even bothered by the fact that he showed he was armed was a bit unsettling. Trevor grunted in pain as the man's boot connected with his groin and fell to his knees. "Trevor Belmont, house Belmont, last son of the Belmont family, happy now?"

"Now." The man smirked and kicked again, this time aiming for his face, but Trevor was ready this time.

Before the man's foot could connect with his face,Trevor managed to grab it and held it up before knocking the man's other leg out from under him and sent him to the floor.

"Trevor what the hell is going on?" Stela asked, approaching him as he kicked the man in the face.

"These men were talking nasty things about you after you left the bar, so as a good brother I decided to defend your honor." Trevor replied just as the bartender hit him right in the face.

"That's probably not true." Stela muttered as her traveling companion moved to bring the fight away from her as two other men ran towards him to fight.

"The Belmont girl is here!" One of the men yelled as he stumbled near her.

"I'm not even a Belmont, I'm a Tepes." Stela retorted as he threw a punch at her and she grabbed his fist. "Men, always starting brawls in taverns over the stupidest of things like a bunch of spoiled children. Now I truly see why mother wouldn't even let me and Adrien near bars, the stupidity is probably contagious."

She twisted the man's arm and shoved him away towards Trevor, who had been punched and thrown to the floor.

"So this is how you want it?" He yelled getting to his feet, blood already coming out of his nose and mouth. "Listen, I used to fight fucking vampires!"

The small man Stela had shoved towards him hit him in the face and grabbed the hunter's arms to hold them back. "Kick him!"

Stela winced as the bigger man threw a hard kick at Trevor in the groin. "Eh...you need help?"

"Will you please leave my testicles alone?" He managed to wheeze. "Stay out of this Stela! My fight...not yours!"

"For fucks sake." Stela stormed over to one of the tables and grabbed a chair, but before she could even pick it up, she heard some more fighting and saw Trevor on the floor again. "I swear when we get out of here and get to Gresit I am seriously considering getting myself a better traveling companion, one that does not get into bar fights!"

"Oi, you're the Belmont's sister!" The tall man who had kicked Trevor said turning to Stela and cracked his knuckles.

"You aren't that bright are you?" Stela commented as the man threw a punch at her and she swerve to avoid getting hit. He punched again, and this time managed to get her in the face. "For fucks sake!" She stumbled back, holding her hand over her nose and eye and backed right into Trevor.

"I am Trevor fucking Belmont,and I have never lost a fight to man,not a fucking beast." He snarled as he tried to wipe the blood from his mouth.

"Oh god I think my nose is broken, and I can't see anything from my eye." Stela groaned. Before Trevor could even respond, one of the men kicked his leg and he fell backwards, taking Stela right with him. "Get off me!" She yelled, shoving his arm off her and rolled out of the way.

"Oh shit." Stela heard something break and lifted her head to see Trevor with broken pieces of a chair on top of him. The man who had punched her earlier was standing there with a large grin on his face, looking rather proud of himself.

"Got to do everything myself now, right?" Stela managed to get to her feet before approaching the man. "Excuse me?"

The tall man looked down to face her, a confused expression on his face.

"Uh...yes?" He asked. Stela gave him a sweet smile before grabbing him by the front of his apron with such force with one hand and swung her elbow into his face. The man groaned and pain before Stela released him to let him fall to the floor.

"And that's how you win bar fights Trevor." She muttered proudly, rubbing her elbow.

"You won your first bar fight, congrats." Trevor groaned from the floor. "Now help me up, please?"

Stela did as she was told, bringing a table over and using it to steady herself as she helped Trevor to his feet. He frowned and used his thumb to wipe away at a corner of her nose.

"Well that's gonna to bruise, your nose doesn't look broken." He stated as he examined her face. "But your eye looks sort of bad, but I'm sure you won't go blind."

"Oh good, had me worried there for a minute. Father said even if you fixed a broken nose the person would probably have breathing problems later. Let's get out of here before they wake up."

Being the least beaten up of the two, Stela helped Trevor to the door and exit the tavern before he threw up a few feet away.

"Bastards…" He muttered and looked back at the tavern. "I hope you all bleed out, through your asses!"

"I don't even think that's medically possible." Stela commented as she urged him to move. "Here, you have some blood and vomit right...there." Stela quickly wiped away the mess from a corner of his mouth with her cloak and smiled. "There. Now let's get you some water to clean that mess from your mouth."


	4. |.| Gresit |.|

Trevor awoke to the sound of someone snoring next him. Opening his eyes and turning his head slightly in the direction of the snoring before smiling a bit to himself. Stela was asleep next to him, her head leaning slighting against his shoulder with her cloak wrapped tightly around her body. He recalled her declining his offer to give her his cloak so she wouldn't freeze, saying she didn't want him to freeze to death before they reached Gresit. She even immediately declined his idea of her sleeping on the ground next to him so he could cover them both with his cloak, saying it was improper and she'd feel better sleeping wrapped up in her own cloak. Her facial features twisted in an uncomfortable manner like she was having some sort of nightmare and twitching every now and then.

"Stela, Stela wake up." Trevor murmured and shook her a bit. Stela's eyes blinked open before she sat up.

"What time is it?" She asked rubbing the sleep from her eyes and winced. "Oh god my eye hurts."

"Morning, obviously." Trevor responds as he gets to his feet and extends a hand to her. "Come on, we have to keep walking to get to the next town for some food. I think Gresit is close."

Stela took his hand and let him hoist her up before following him. The two walked in silence through the forest until they came to the edge of it. A large city stood a few miles from the edge of the forest, though from a distance the city hates looked as if they were blocked.

"There it is, Gresit. The only city that's between us and starvation." Trevor stated with a yawn. "Come on, the sooner we find a way in, the sooner you can find whoever you're looking for and have a better traveling companion." 

"Why is the entrance blocked off?" Stela asked, gesturing to the closed gate that seemed to have crates on the other side. "Shouldn't it be opened at this hour?"

"I suppose it's because of them."

Stela looked to where Trevor was pointing to and saw what looked like five or six strange looking creatures climbing down from the city walls and scampering off, one carrying something in its mouth.

"Minions of Dracula's army...oh god." Stela murmured before saying loudly, "I have to get into the city, and fast."

"There's no way in, and I doubt the people of Gresit are going to bother opening their gates." Trevor pointed out and pinched the bridge of his nose. "Look, let's just find a way in and once we do we'll go our separate ways."

Trevor was the one who reluctantly suggested they used the sewers to get into the blocked off city, though he looked like he was having second thoughts when he saw they had to cross a small pond that smelled nasty and barely had anywhere to stand on. He went first, telling Stela to step where he stepped and to say at least one foot behind him.

"Ugh, God forbid you should warn people before you empty your shit pots." He groaned when some foul smelling liquid came flying out of the pipe.

"Well that explains the stink." Stela mumbles as she followed him into the pipe, taking care not to step on the middle of the floor and lifted her cloak to keep it from dragging.

"Never thought I'd have to climb a shit pipe in pursuit of breakfast." Trevor muttered loudly. "This better be worth it."

"Trust me, it will once we get out of the pipe. After this I'm definitely taking a long hot bath."

"If you can find a place to bathe."

The duo soon reached the top of the pipe and climbed out of it, feeling grateful to no longer be in a smelly pipe. A guard stood nearby, thankfully asleep so they just had to walk past him and not disturb him. Once they got past the guard, Trevor and Stela walked a bit farther into the city where what looked like a majority of the buildings were destroyed before stopping.

"Well, I guess this is goodbye." Stela said as she reached for her belt and took out her coin purse.

"Now hold on, you don't need to pay me." Trevor said quickly as she pulled out a few coins from the bag. "You keep that in case you need food for yourself or that friend or whoever it is you're looking for."

"No really, I did promise you money and I'm going to feel bad for not sticking to my promise." She grabbed his hand and dropped the coins onto it before covering it with her own hand. "Even though I barely knew you for a day, this little trip was quite eventful and I learned a thing or two. Take care Trevor Belmont, perhaps we'll run into each other again in the future."

"Perhaps, or perhaps not." Trevor said with a shrug and gave her a small smile. "See you around."

Stela returned the smile before pulling the hook of her cloak over her head and hurried off into the city.

The square was full of people, much to Stela's relief, and she decided that it would be a good idea to Stark asking around.

"Excuse me, but by any chance have you seen a man much taller than me with a black and gold coat and long blonde hair?" She asked a woman who was busy collecting some fruit off the floor.

"Haven't seen a person like that dearie." The woman responded briskly. "Looking for someone?"

"Yes, my younger brother. He said he'd be in this city, are you sure you haven't seen him? He told me to meet him here in a year."

"Can't say I have, not many people come to Gresit and stay for a year unless they're moving in to live here permanently."

"Alright, sorry to bother you. Good day."

Stela asked the same questions to all the vendors, at one point even asking some of the townspeople if they'd seen her brother, but no luck. At one point she thought she saw Trevor wandering through the square, also talking to some of the people, but decided not to approach him.

"Adrien where are you…" Stela murmured as she moved away from the square towards the alleys. She was already starting to lose hope that he was even in the city at all. She even had asked if there were any tombs under the city, which had resulted in her getting puzzled looks or a bunch of "no's".

"I'm going to kill that bastard!" Stela stopped in her tracks when she saw two men clothes in black with red sashes tied around their waists come from around the corner of one of the buildings, one of them covering his eye what seemed to be bleeding and the other holding his hand to his chest with the front of his robe covered the front of his tunic. That one glared at her. "What the hell are you staring at, never seen a priest before?"

"I have, just one who swears and is bleeding like a butchered bull." Stela retorted as she edged away from the two. "I hate to be a bother, but have you seen a man much taller than me with a black coat-"

"You know the whip welding bastard?" The priest asked, his eyes narrowed in anger. "You tell him once I get my hand fixed I'm coming after him and impaling him with my knife! Defending a fucking Speaker of all people, they're the reason why the demons have been coming to this city at night!"

Stela wasn't even sure if the man was talking about Trevor, but who else did she know who carried a whip? "That's certainly no way for a man of God to talk, I'm surprised you haven't been struck down for swearing and threatening innocent people who probably haven't even done anything to you."

The priest's face was now turning a nasty shade of red at this point, which was her signal to leave. As she walked, Stela began to wonder where she could even find the tomb where he brother was sleeping in. Had he awaken early and left Gresit to go looking for her? Was he still asleep, waiting for her to come with a hunter and a scholar? She recalled Adrien mentioning that a Belmont could help them fight, they were professionals and sworn enemies of Dracula, and she had found one, so maybe Trevor was the hunter of the prophecy. But who was the scholar?

As she walked, Stela didn't hear the sound of someone approaching her from behind until she felt a tap on the shoulder.

"Can I help- Trevor!" The hunter stood behind her with a solemn look, an old man dressed in blue robes at his side with a much more pleasant expression.

"Ah, you must be the young lady my companion mentioned." The older man said, giving Stela a warm smile. "He insisted we find you before returning to my people, sounded quite concerned and worried for your well-being."

Stela's eyes widened in surprise and looked to Trevor, who turned to look away from her.

"Had a run in with two priests, not very holy men if I'm being honest because they tried beating this old man and nearly stabbed me. But I didn't think it'd be a good idea for you to be wandering around the city with priests like that on the loose."

"Too late, I ran into a pair of priests and the more pissy one was swearing and threatened to come after you if he saw you again." Stela stated, to which Trevor rolled his eyes and she cracked a grin. "They seemed quite beaten up, figured it was you since they referred to you as "the whip welding bastard". What sort of trouble have you been getting into without me Trevor Belmont?"

"Just- just come, and at least stay with me and the Speakers for a bit. Any luck on finding whoever you're looking for?"

"No, I asked around and hit a wall. I'm starting to think he's not even here at all."

"Shame."

The three continued to walk, Stela and Trevor keeping the elderly Speaker between them while he happily chatted with Stela about the places he and his people have been to. After a while they soon came to a more deserted area of the city, where one lone house stood. It seemed more intact than the other buildings surrounding it.

"This is where we live, please come inside." The elder said gesturing to the house. "Meet my people."

They entered the house and shut the door behind them. Stela counted about ten people dressed in blue robes similar to the elder's, all with their hair cut short. She remembered her mother telling her how the women Speakers cut their hair short and dressed in large robes like the men so it was safer for them to travel, something she had done when she and her brother went separate ways.

"Elder, we were worried about you! I told you it was too soon to go outdoors." One of the Speakers said, a young man who looked around the same age as Stela.

"And I told you it was necessary to offer aid to the people." The elder responded. "However I was met by some of the Christian priests."

"Are you alright?"

"Thanks to this man." The elder turned towards Trevor and Stela. "He and his traveling companion walked me back home safely, although I fear there may be terrible things ahead because of it."

The younger Speaker turned to the two of them. "What did you do?"

"I'm a little out of practice, they're both still alive." Trevor replies.

"You used violence on them?!" The younger speaker asked in horror.

"I simply paths with them, one threatened to kill my companion but I didn't do anything to them- though I wish I did." Stela replied with a shrug. "It's rather sad that a bishop even allowed such violent men like that to become priests. If Trevor's actions to defend your elder upset you, I apologize."

"The younger people believe that words can speak louder than actions." The elder explained.

"Well your Speakers words are what you do." Trevor murmured.

"You know of us?" The younger Speaker asked, looking quite surprised.

"My family has always been on good terms with Speakers, although my father once got into a fight with one."

"I thought Speakers were supposed to be peaceful and kind people?" Stela asked. "I met some when I was little, they were kind to everyone including the women in the brothel."

"She is right, true Speakers don't fight."

"When he tried to convince a Speaker to have your oral history transcribed on paper." Trevor adds.

"Ah yes, we are quite protective of our ways." The elder said with a small laugh. "History is a living thing, paper is dead. Would you like something to eat?"

"If you have anything to spare, it's fine." Stela responds.

"I'd prefer something to drink." Trevor replies.

"Arn, bring our friends some water."

"Oh... nevermind then."

Stela bit her lip to keep herself from laughing at Trevor's disappointed expression as one of the Speakers gave her an apple and happily bit into it while listening to Trevor ask why the Speakers were even in Gresit.

"Speakers live anywhere they seem right, you must know that." Arn responded.

"Aren't you supposed to be a nomadic tribe?" Stela asked, pausing to bite into her food and chew it a bit before swallowing the piece. "Your group seems to have been here for a while."

"How do you know that?"

"Because the locals are blaming you for the attacks." Trevor replies.

"That's the church's doing, they need something to blame."

"To divert people from the truth, that the church itself brought Dracula's hordes down on the land."

"Really?"

"There were Speakers in Terigovishe a year ago. The church burned Dracula's wife at the stake as a witch."

"I was there with my brother, we knew her." Stela spoke up and the three men looked to her in surprise. "I found out later it was an old wise woman from the town Dracula's wife was living in who told the church what happened, jealous that the people were flocking to her for medical help and taking her medicines instead of the old hag's remedies that were really just broken finger nails mixed with piss."

"Shit…" Trevor muttered.

"That is indeed one way of putting it." The elder agreed.

"You didn't answer my question."

The elder looked at Trevor solemnly before walking to a crate and sat on top of it. "There is no structure left in Gresit, no doctors, no aid. If you know Speakers, you know we can't turn away from those in need. That is why we are here."

"You may as well tell them the rest." Arn commented and the elder nodded.

"The rest of what?" Stela asked.

"In Speaker history there is an old story, a legend probably." The elder then explained an old legend of a savior who slept under Gresit until he was needed until there was a darkness in the land.

"Yeah I've heard that one, "The Sleeping Soldier"." Trevor commented. "It's a local legend, sounds weirdly convenient to me is you know what I mean."

"My brother and I heard that one, an old tale that some of the townspeople seem to believe." Stela added.

"Exactly how much do you know about this?" The elder asked them.

"I'm a Belmont," Trevor responds and shifts a part of his cloak to show him the small family symbol on his chest that Stela hadn't seen until now. "So I know you're nomadic people who father knowledge, memorize it, carry complete spoken histories with you."

"I happened to read about it, my adopted father had a large library that my brother and I used to practically live in to soak up as much knowledge as we could, and we happened upon one old book mentioning this old legend." Stela added with a shrug. "Believe me, you'd be surprised how many daughters of lords with vast libraries in their homes actually have read all the books in there more than once just to memorize something."

"I also know you gather hidden knowledge and have practitioners of magic in your tribes."

"A Belmont? I thought your family had vanished." Arn said and looked to Stela. "You're one as well, aren't you?"

"No, I'm not, I grew up in a different family." She responded and jerked her thumb at Trevor. "I'm not related to him in any way."

"If by vanished is the polite way of saying exiled, hated and burned out of the ancestral home." Trevor said and pushed her hand down.

"Then you know something of magic." Said the elder. "And so you know that just because we found a story in our past, it doesn't mean it originated there."

"Then where did it originate from?" Stela asked.

"The wisest and cleverest of our magicians know that time is not absolute, that it is possible to hear stories from the future."

"So you think there is someone who can save the city is asleep under it, and you are here to wait for him?" Trevor asked and the elder nodded.

"One of us went to look for him."

"This would be your missing Speaker."

"Yes, that one went into the catacombs under the mazolium west of the church, has not returned."

“Wait, catacombs?” Stela asked, perking up. “I’ve been asking around where those are and no one has told me anything or looked at me like I was crazy!”

“I wonder why.” Trevor muttered. "Isn't there a head man in Gresit you can go to?"

"He died in the first horde attack. Our searches have been unsuccessful.” The elder sighed before looking back to them. “So, what are your plans?”

"Find some more food, find some drink, get drunk, eat some food, move on.” Tevor replies with a shrug.

"That’s it?”

"Maybe find a tall tree, sit in it and watch the show before I move on. All the good little people dying horribly no doubt."

"You feel no compassion?”

"I’m pretty sure all his compassion went out the door when the church burnt his home down, but even I have to say I’m shocked that you still don’t want to help people.” Stela commented with a frown. “Don’t you even want to help? I thought that’s what the Belmont family was supposed to do, not just sit back in the shadows and do nothing.”

"This is what the church wanted.” Trevor retorted, and Stela could hear the anger in his tone “My family were the only people who could have fought Dracula, but they didn’t want us. They wanted to fight the darkness on their own terms, good luck to them.”

"But the ordinary people of Walechia, they didn’t get a choice.” The elder pointed out.

"For evil bastards in power, all ordinary people have to do is stand aside and keep quiet. There’s always a choice.”

"People like the ones who burned your home and hurt your family did the same to mine, and yet do you see me ignoring them in their time of need?” Stela shot back. “That didn’t stop me from trying to help them, unlike you, who’d rather watch the world burn because you don’t give two shits about anyone but yourself like the selfish bastard you are!”

"Watch your tone.” Trevor muttered and Stela nearly pithed her apple at him in anger. “And if you’re forgetting I actually helped you find this city and brought you to it as safely as I could, then went looking for you to make sure those priests didn’t hurt you. Am I still a “selfish bastard” now?”

"Well, find a good tall tree. You can watch us die too.” The elder commented

"Don’t be crazy. Leave now, head south, hook up with another train.”

"It’s his grandchild!” Arn suddenly spoke up.

"Arn!”

"I don’t care! It’s the elder’s grandchild down there, we can’t even bury them.” Arn stated and looked down at the floor mournfully. “It’s just not our way to leave our dead unattended to.”

"We’re staying for the people of Gresit." The elder insisted.

"Yes, we do. But we also hope-"

"So you're staying to die with the good people of Gresit because it's a good thing to do, but because you don't have your grandchild's body?" Trevor interrupted.

"You can't even go outside without someone trying to hurt you, that's why you can't go retrieve their remains." Stela added.

"If you want to put it that way." The elder said with a small nod.

_ I can't even leave Gresit without actually finding my brother, he said something about being underground. What if the place he said to find him in is where this missing Speaker was looking for?  _ Stela thought to herself.  _ Did they die looking for that place? If they did, what if Adrien died looking for it too?  _

"If I go and recover your kid's body, will you please leave?" She heard Trevor ask from his spot in front of the small fireplace. "Wait outside the city, give your aid to the survivors when the night horde just rips through this place."

"Why would you do that?" Arn asked.

"They're going to come for you soon, the good people, it's going to be a polgrom." Trevor responds and turns to the Speakers. "They were talking about it in the marketplace this morning."

"I don't think you answered my question."

"I know what it's like to be persecuted by your own country for the accident of your birth."

"I know about that as well." Stela murmurs, and for a moment she thought she saw a look of sympathy in the hunter's eyes. "He is right, you all should leave the city, stay away as far as you can and give aid when it’s over so the people would know you are not responsible for all this mess.”

Trevor nodded and looked back to the elder. "If I find your grandchild-”

"If  _ we _ , I’m coming with you.” Stela interrupted. “And you’re not stopping me.”

"Fine, if we find your grandchild will you leave the city before nightfall?” Trevor said, turning his attention from Stela back to the elder Speaker. 

"If that is the condition of your recovery, then yes.” The older man agreed.

Trevor cracked his fingers and walked over to one of the seated Speakers, taking an apple from their hands before walking to the door. “I’m leaving now, don’t go walking about to find people to give support to. Stay right here.”

"Belmont,” the elder called as Stela walked to the door and pushed it open. “It is not dying that frightens us, it’s living without ever having done our best.”

Trevor stood there at the door for a moment before gently pushing Stela forward. “I don’t care.” Once out the door, Trevor turned to Stela with a serious expression. “Are you absolutely sure you want to come with me to retrieve this Speaker’s body? We don’t know what is down there.”

"Yes, I am going with you, unless you're too scared to go poking around an old crypt by yourself." Stela responds and pokes him in the arm. This response earns her what she guessed was a small smile from Trevor.

"Thought you were mad at me for being a "selfish bastard" earlier."

"I was, but that’s in the past and I’m not holding that against you.”

"You do know the last time you were with me you got hurt, that eye is still looking bad."

"We all have to take risks Belmont. So are we doing this or not?"

Trevor sighed before nodding. "Fine, I'll let you come along. But if something happens to you down in the crypts I don't think I'll have the strength to carry two bodies back with me."


	5. |•| What Lies Under Gresit |•|

The graveyard sat about a mile from the city, a large iron gate surrounding the multiple graves with their crumbling tombstones and angel statues. Trevor had to use his knife to break open the lock on the gate, Stela simply grabbed a few large rocks to pile on top of each other and used them to climb over the fence. By the time he gave up on breaking the lock and used the stones to climb the fence, Trevor found Stela seated next to a broken statue of some woman.

"I've asked the people how deep the catacombs go, but apparently they're not that deep." She said as she rose to her feet and followed Trevor as they wove between the old tombstones.

"Why are you so interested in a place where they keep dead people?" The hunter asked, kicking at a dead bush that stood in his way.

"Well it's certainly a good place to hide anything really, from dead bodies you don't want to find, monsters, treasure, sleeping saviors, the possibilities are endless!"

"You certainly are very weird."

“It’s part of my charm.”

After walking through the graveyard they soon found a large stone structure, one of those Stela had seen used to entomb the bodies of rich families who didn’t want to be buried under the ground like the poor folk. She had noticed that this one, unlike the others that were nearby, had what looked like demons carved outside of it, a rather strange design to have in a holy burial ground. They stepped inside, Stela stepping closer to Trevor as they went deeper into the tomb.

“Is...is this it?” Stela asked and Trevor shook his head.

“Wait here.” He instructed and moved forward to examine something. Stela watched as he squinted at the wall behind the statues and moved to the side before catching a small smirk on his lips. “Can you wait here for me to return? If I don't come back in...a few hours, go back to the Speakers and get them to at least leave the city."

"I'm sure it won't take long for you to recover a dead body, but are you sure you don't want me to come along?" Stela asked as he started to climb up the statue.

"Someone needs to get back to tell the Speakers the news, also I don't know what's down here that may have killed the missing Speaker and I don't want it getting either of us."

"You're no fun Belmont, but I'll stay here and wait." Stela sat herself down in front of one of the stone coffins. "I'm good at waiting to see if someone comes back to me alive after telling for me to wait for them."

She watched as the hunter disappeared into a hole in the wall she hadn't even noticed near the top of the statues and proceed to wait. She tried entertaining herself by counting all the stone demons and gargoyles on the walls, then counting all the bricks as well. Stela wasn't even sure when she had fallen asleep waiting, but she awoke to someone violently shaking her awake and an unfamiliar woman's voice yelling at whoever was shaking her.

"You don't shake someone that hard!" The woman shouted when Stela opened her eyes to find Trevor kneeling down in front of her. "Could have accidentally snapped her neck!"

"She didn't even wake up when I yelled her name or gently shook her." Trevor pointed out as he stood up and turned to face the woman.

"You don't wake a lady like that." Stela pointed out as she stood up and brushed the dust off the back of her cloak. The woman next to Trevor, who she guessed was their missing Speaker, gave her a small smile.

"You're hardly a lady, you curse and get into fist fights in bars." Trevor retorts and Stela casted him a glare. "Anyways, introduce yourself and make it quick, we need to get back to the other Speakers before the sun goes down."

"I'm Sypha Belnades, I guess you're the companion Belmont mentioned to me?" The Speaker said and held out her hand to Stela. She seemed nice, probably a lot more better company than Trevor.

"Stela Tepes, and yes I am sort of this idiot's traveling companion." Stela said with a small laugh as she shook Sypha's hand. "Glad to see he found you alive and not dead, do you need any food or water? Must have been starving down in the crypts."

"Talk later, we have to go!" Trevor announced loudly by the doorway of the tomb. "You two can talk all you want outside, but we need to go- now!"

"Rude." Sypha mutters as they follow him outside. "Now I'm starting to wonder how he even managed to get you to travel with him for so long."

"It's the other way around, I actually paid him to travel with me all the way to Gresit." Stela explained as they walked through the graveyard. "We went our separate ways, but some stuff happened and he went looking for me to make sure I was alright and now I'm stuck with him until we leave this city."

"Don't say it like that." They heard Trevor mutter. "You can go wherever you please once we leave the city and wait for this demon fest to pass."

The three continued to walk,Sypha and Stela making some small talk and ignoring Trevor most of the way until they reached the Speakers temporary home. Stela couldn't help but smile as she watched Sypha reunite with her grandfather, thinking how happy she was going to be herself when she reunited with her own brother- assuming she could still find him. Trevor had told her on the way back to the Speakers that Sypha found nothing down in the crypts, just a bunch of broken statues and a cyclops that turned people to stone with it's eye. Stela was almost too afraid to ask if they found a broken statue matching the description of her brother.

"I failed to find the sleeper, I'm sorry-" Sypha cried as she hugged her grandfather.

"I very much doubt there's anyone down there, it's probably a boobytraped legend. There's someone wriggling with pleasure in their coffin right now thinking of someone like your girl walking into a cyclops lair." Trevor spoke up and frowned.

"Or there is something down there, something so important that it must be guarded by monsters." Sypha pointed out. "Stela mentioned she was looking for something that had to be in the crypts-"

"There was nothing down there that she was looking for." Trevor stated. "Your messiah isn't down there."

"And what makes you so sure?"

"She has a point Trevor, maybe if you two went deeper into the crypts, past the cyclops you could have found something." Stela pointed out. "How are you so sure there's no one below the city that can stop Dracula?"

"The Speakers carry information through the generations, we Belmonts pass things down as well." Trevor responded. "Do you remember what we saw down there?"

"I wasn't down there, you made me stay above ground." Stela pointed out. "Mind explaining what you two saw down there?"

"Metal veins pumping hot liquid, torches that light by themselves, the exact descriptions written by my great grandfather." Trevor explained. "Descriptions of the inside of Dracula's castle."

_ If the underground part of the crypts look like that...Adrien’s close! _ Stela thought and smiled to herself.

“I’ll leave you all to it.” She heard Trevor say as he walked to the door.

“No, nonsense, please, stay with us for as long as you’d like.” The elder said quickly. “I cannot begin to repay what I owe you.”

“You’re leaving tonight, remember?” Trevor asked.

“Well, yes, until then.”

“Right, I’ll come back later. See if I can find some beer.”

“I could pee in a bucket and tell him it’s beer.” Sypha commented when Trevor was out the door and out of earshot.

“Sypha, he saved your life!” Her grandfather scolded and Sypha made a face.

“I doubt Trevor can tell the difference between piss and beer, but I suggest against giving him any.” Stela chuckled as she moved to the door.

“Where are you going?” Sypha asked.

“Back to the crypts, I don’t care what Trevor says, something is down there and I intend to find it without his help.” Stela replied as she pulled the hood of her cloak over her head. “I’ll be back, just don’t tell him where I went if he comes looking for me.”

“Are you sure you want to go there alone?” The elder asked, worry lacing his voice. “You might come across something much worse than what my granddaughter came across.”

“I’ve crossed paths with things worse than cyclops, I can handle myself.” Stela assured him and took a deep breath. “God give me the strength and courage to finish this task, and help me find my way back alive.”

💫💫🌟💫💫

Getting back to the old catacombs was easy enough for Stela, however navigating the place was difficult. There was an area that looked like someone had smashed a hole into the ground and she nearly fell in, and a lot of the hallways had deadends or deep drops that led to who knows where and she wasn’t sure if she wanted to drop in and find something she couldn’t fight. Sypha had written don instructions on how she got into the area where the cyclops was residing in before she was turned to stone, and she now found herself in a smelly room full of decomposing bodies and a corpse of a cyclops.

“Self lighting torches, this is it.” Stela said to herself when she noticed the brightly glowing lights on the wall that were buzzing. This part of the catacombs did look like a part of the castle, one of the old hallways she remembered getting lost in when she was a child and still getting used to living in such a big home. She had been contemplating into going into the tunnel that looked like where the cyclops slept when she heard something that sounded like footsteps.

Stela immediately threw herself behind one of the pillars to hide herself and pulled a silver dagger out from her boot. These were reserved for stabbing or throwing them at vampires or werewolves, but she was going to make the exception of using them on any human who had any intentions to harming her. She could hear voices now, and two of them were very familiar.

“Why the hell would she be down here, there’s nothing but death down here!” What was Trevor doing down here?

“I don’t even know, but maybe she also thinks there’s something down here.” She heard Sypha argue. “Why are you so concerned about her, she can handle herself.”

When Trevor didn’t respond, Stela peeked around the pillar to see them with the other Speakers. What were they even doing here?

“Just stay here, don’t go looking through the catacombs for sleeping saviors.” Trevor instructed as he started to walk away from the group when Stela quickly stepped out of the shadows and cleared her throat loudly. For a moment she thought the hunter was going to attack her, since his hand flew down to his whip until he saw her. The startled look on Trevor's face melted momentarily into relief until it went back to his usual stoic expression.

"What, surprised I'm not dead?" Stela asked as she walked towards him, twirling the knife between her fingers.

"You were going murder one of us with that weren't you?"

"Until I saw who was down here, and I probably would have hit you with it."

"Well a good thing you didn't." Sypha said as she approached them. "What did you find down here?"

"Nothing but dead bodies and that cyclops body." Stela stated and wrinkled her nose in disgust. "I thought my brother would be down here but nose of the statues look like him so he's not here."

"You are not going any further, stay here with the Speakers." Trevor said and gave her a look. "It's already close to sundown, and the people of Gresit are coming for them so I need you to stay here and guard them."

"And where are you going?" Stela asked with a frown. "Leaving us all down here while you run off?"

"No, I'm going to face them myself and make sure they don't find any of you." Trevor retorts. "You're in danger too Stela, just stay here until I come back to let you all know the coast is clear. I need to prove that the Speakers aren't causing Dracula's demon horde to invade the city."

"Then let me help you, you can't hold off an entire mod of angry superstitious people with corrupt priests on your own." Stela pleads and grabs his arm. "They'll overwhelm you, at least let me help hold them off."

Trevor quickly shook his head and gently pulled his arm out of her grip. "Your brother still needs to be found, I don't even know what he looks like so you need to be alive to find him. Please, just stay here and don't move." He then gave Stela a look. "And that means you. Keep the Speakers safe, make sure no one enters or leaves this crypt. And do stay out of trouble, don't do anything stupid."

"You're the one taking all the stupidity with you." Stela scoffs.


	6. |•| Demon Hunt |•|

"He still isn't back yet." Arn announced loudly. "You think he's dead?"

"I doubt it, he fought two priests earlier today and a cyclops, I'm sure he could handle an angry crowd." The elder assured him and looked to Stela and Sypha. "You two seem very worried."

"I just don't like the idea of someone facing against a force that can kill them. My biological mother died doing what he was doing, protecting me." Stela said and groaned. "I should have went after him, I can't stay down here."

"You're worried about him?" Sypha asked as she flicked a small broken rock at a pillar and looked to Stela.

"He's up there alone, against over three hundred people being led by corrupt priests and trying to make sure they don't hurt you because they were led to believe all this death is your fault. At times like this I feel embarrassed to be part of the same religion full of such closed minded people like the ones who are trying to kill your people." Stela groaned. "We're supposed to be kind and loving, accepting those who are different from us and helping others the way the Bible tells us to. I swear I want to storm back up to that church and give that bishop a piece of my mind."

"Trevor told us to stay until he got back, or at least until sunrise." Arn pointed out and glanced warily at the cyclops body. "And he especially told you to stay put as well."

"Oh please, if something as dangerous as the cyclops was down here it would have attacked us by now."

"In that case, should we go and aid him?" Sypha asked getting to her feet. "Make sure the people of Gresit don't try to come out here?"

"We should, I'm not just going to stay here waiting for a bunch of superstitious idiots to kill Trevor and come looking for us." Stela says in agreement as she gets to her feet. "I'm tired of hiding and running, and if those people don't come down here to kill us, who knows if Dracula's horde will. And I'm quite sure no one in Gresit aside from Trevor and I know how to kill demons."

"Then I'm coming too." Sypha announced. "I know magic so that should be helpful."

"Girls, please be careful." The elder warned as he rose to his feet and approached them. "The last thing we need is more death. You two must be careful and come back alive."

"We'll be fine grandfather, you can count on us." Sypha assured him and looked to Stela. "Can I trust you to watch my back?"

"Only if I can trust you to watch mine." Stela says with a nod. "Come on, it's time to show Gresit what happens when they listen to a bunch of lying priests."

💫💫🌟💫💫

Neither of the two women encountered anyone on their way from the cemetery to the town. They did have to stop and hide themselves in alleys when a small crowd passed them with torches and weapons in hand, shouting and chasing something- or more specifically someone.

"They're headed towards the village square, we need to get to the roofs." Stela said pointing to the rooftops. "What sort of magic can you do?"

"I can do ice and fire magic that doesn't need any incantations, would that do?" Sypha responded.

"Anything that's going to separate Trevor from the angry crowd will do. Come on, before we lose track of them!"

Once on the rooftops, Stela and Sypha managed to navigate their way undetected towards the townsquare where a crowd had gathered and surrounded a familiar out of breath man and started to walk towards him with their weapons ready.

"Sypha, can you-”

“On it!” A small ball of pale light appeared in the Speaker’s hands as a ball of fire appeared on the ground below and zipped towards Trevor. The two women could hear the townspeople below screaming in terror as the fire circled around Trevor to act as a barrier.

“Witch!” A man below yelled as the people turned to see where the fire had come from.

“No! I am a Speaker, and a scholar of magic!” Sypha retorted as the light in her hands turned an icy blue color. “I serve no demon and I do evil!” She blasted a powerful wind spell at the people before causing the fire she had surrounding Trevor open up and act as a pathway to come towards them.

“You never told me you were a magician.” Trevor called from below as he walked towards the two girls.”

“You never asked her.” Stela retorts as she lowers herself to the edge of the roof and jumps down, landing on her feet. “Sorry Belmont, but we couldn’t stay in that place for long with the other Speakers, but I promise they’re fine.”

“Missed me?” Trevor teased before looking abck up to Sypha. “I now understand why it was you who went down to the catacombs to look for your sleepy god, what are you two doing here?”

“I didn’t ask you to fight for me, I fight for myself.” Sypha resonds. “Stela got worried about the town killing you for protecting us and wanted to make sure you’re alirght.”

“Nice to see someone worries for me.” Trevor laughs before stopping and looking out to the crowd. Stela turns to see one of the priests, the one she remebered missing a finger and who threatened to kill Trevor earlier that morning, standing in the crowd with a long knife in his hand. “You!” the hunter snarls and points at the man.

“Kill them, quickly!” The man yells, seeming to forget that there was a large fire separating the people from Trevor on both sides.

“No, just you and me, come on.” Trevor snapped. When the man didn’t respond, he continued to talk. “You’re very big at telling people to tell you what to do, getting the good people of Gresit to commit murder for you. Let’s see how you do on your own.”

The fire barrier vanishes as the people of Gresit move away from the priest and as Trevor walks towards him, one hand on the sword strapped to his side.

“I can see you’re carrying a blade, I wonder if the great people of Gresit have ever seen a priest pull a knife before?” Trevor asks as he walks towards the man and motions Stela to come forward. “Your long knife, my short sword, let’s go.”

Stela nearly laughed when she saw the priest try to shuffle back with the rest of the crowd. “Come on, you had no trouble threatening to kill him this morning.” She taunted as she and Trevor stepped closer to the nervous man.

“And you had no problem beating an old man this morning.” Trevor adds. “You had no problem lying to these people about the Speakers.”

“The Speakers brought this upon us!” The priest tried to protest.

“No, and you know it.” Trevor retorts. “The Speakers stayed here to offer aid, it was your bishop who brought all this down on us, your bishop who started it all by killing a defenseless woman! You would would have made murderers out of these people!”

“The only one here who isn’t innocent, is you.” Stela snaps. “You and those “priests” who are just as bad as your bishop!”

Several men from the crowd came running out with knives, a pitchfork and a sword and began attacking the priest, stabbing him everywhere until he was bleeding out all over the place.

“Well, that takes care of that.” Stela mutters to herself. “It’s night fall already, but where are-”

She was interrupted by a loud explosion from the other side of the city, startling the people and sending them running in fear.

“You just had to open your mouth.” Trevor mutters and Stela glares at him as Sypha ran up to them.

"It's them, they're coming!" She yells as loud explosions and screams could be heard from where the first explosion was.

“Back to the far side of the square!” Trevor yells as everyone else begins to run. His eyes land on a man with large pike. “Pikes, up front now!”

“What?! Why?” The man asks in alarm.

“Because I’m the only man around here who knows how to fight these things.” Trevor responds as he grabs the man to drag him to the front of the entrance of the square. “Everyone with a pike or long weapon, come with me!”

“Is he serious?” Stela asks Sypha as Trevor begins ordering the townspeople to get salt, holy water and those who had weapons to stay and fight.

“I suppose so, they should know how to defend themselves properly if these demons attack again tomorrow night.” Sypha responds as Stela draws one of her silver daggers out. “You know how to fight these?”

“Anything sharp you can stab them with can kill them, salt and holy water weakens or kills them, I did some extensive reading during my travels.”

“Then let’s put our knowledge to good use.”

“Trevor, is there anything you need us to do?” Stela asks as Trevor hurries back to them.

“Sypha, I want them walled in when they hit the square, only so they can come towards us.” Trevor said turning to the Speaker. “Is that something you can do?”

“Will ice do?” Sypha asks.

“Better than fire anyway.” Trevor responds and turns to Stela. “You think you can lead them this way? The faster they get to the square, the faster we can get rid of them.” 

“That I can do, I’ll be careful.” Stela says and gives them a small smile. “Let’s just hope no one else has to die tonight.” And with that, she took off.

Running towards the explosions was easier than she had guessed, but she was rather surprised to see just seven large demons running about attacking people and blasting fire at them.

“Oi, big uglies!” Stela yelled, waving her arms to get their attention. The three demons stopped what they were doing, their attention now on her. “Come and get me you ugly pieces of shit!”

The biggest of the demons snarled and bolted right towards her, the others following it. Stela took the oppurtunity to start running, throwing empty barrels and crates behind her in hopes of slowing the monsters down.

“You’ll pay for your betrayal to your father!” The big demon screamed as Stela ran towards the square. “We’ll make sure of that!”

“Shut up, shut up, shut up, shut up!” She muttered under her breath as she ran right into the square. “Wall them in, wall them in!”

“Sypha, walls!” Trevor ordered. Large pale blue walls of ice arose from the ground around three demons to keep them from escaping. Grabbing a bucket of water, Trevor flung it at the monsters, causing it to fall on them and grinned when they started to scream in pain.

“Holy water?” Stela asks and he nods.

“That priest can really make holy water after all. Sypha, close the door behind them.”

Sypha did as she was told, cutting the demon’s escape route off. One of the four decided then to attack, leaping right towards the line of men with pikes and pitchforks.

“Rear pikes up!” Trevor yelled as the demon leapt over the first two lines of men. “Cut it down!”

“Impressive.” Stella comments as the six men managed to catch the demon with their weapons and as several men ran forward to cut it down with their own swords.

The three of them along with several other townspeople moved forward as several of the other demons ran towards them, and the fight began. One demon blasted fire right at them, only for Trevor to swing his whip at the beast, causing it to explode on impact.

“The whip’s consecrated, for fighting vampires and demons.” He explained when the two girls looked at him in surprise. “Swords!”

“Look out!” Stela yelled as the bigger demon from earlier leapt towards them and grabbed Sypha by the back of her robe to pull her away before yanking one of her knives and flinging it at the beast’s face.

The demon was chasing after Trevor, who kept jumping back to avoid getting his face bitten off as Sypha tried crushing it with a huge block of ice while Stela swiped at it with her dagger.

“Hold still!” Sypha yelled as she jumped in front of the two to have ice spring from the ground to stab the demon before it could even get to her companions.

“There’s an army of us!” The demon screamed as it tried to swipe at them. “An army! From hell-”

Trevor cut it off with a swipe of his whip, causing the demon to burst into flames and and silencing it. There was a loud rumble under their feet and the three looked down to see the ground shaking. Stela quickly ran to the side, turning to yell at Trevor and Sypha to move when the ground collapsed under their feet and they fell into the abyss below.

“No no! Sypha! Trevor!” Stela screamed as she lunged towards the hole, only to be grabbed by one of the townspeople and pulled away from it. “No let go! They need-”

“No one can survive that, they’re probably dead.” The person who pulled her back said, an elderly man who looked around the same age as Sypha’s own grandfather. “The old city’s catacombs run under this place, they’ll never survive the fall. And even if they did they would have died of starvation down there, I’m sorry.”

It took all of her willpower to not break down in tears. Stela could hardly believe that she just barely found two people who could possibly have been the hunter and scholar of the old prophesy her brother had found and lost them in one night. Two people she had began to grow accustomed to and were now probably dead or badly injured and she couldn’t even get to them.

“Fuck fuck FUCK!” She screamed, angrily kicking at some rubble near her feet. “Dear Lord what have I done to have this happen? Even if I find my brother how am I going to explain to him I lost two people who possibly fit that prophesy?” If only she had tried to get them out of the way in time, seh wouldn’t be standing here close to tears and blaming herself for fucking things up.


	7. |•| A Family Reunited |•|

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Everyone's favorite dhampir finally makes an appearance

Stela honestly thought Sypha’s grandfather was going to scream and curse at her when she broke the devastating news of what happened, but the old man simply broke down in tears while the others tried to comfort him over the loss of his grandchild.

“It’s not your fault.” Arn tried to assure her as she led the Speakers back above ground to give aid to the survivors. “Don’t blame yourself over this, the Elder knows you had no fault in what happened.”

“I should have been faster, and we don’t even know if they’re dead.” Stela points out and buried her face in her hands. “I failed my brother, he’s going to be so pissed when I find him and come empty handed. Trevor was obviously the hunter in the prophecy, and Sypha was possibly the scholar, and now they’re probably dead! And now the rest of Romania are going to die because of this!”

“I don’t think they’re dead, if they’re a part of an important prophesy like this one they can’t die until it’s complete.” Arn pointed out as they were reaching the top part of the catacombs. “Just watch, by late morning Belmont and Sypha will be at our doorstep, and hopefully with the sleeping savior.”

_ That is, if they find my brother...assuming he is actually under Gresit. _

The Speakers and Stela spent the rest of the evening giving aid to the people of Gresit, removing bodies off the streets, killing any stray demons who had not fled after the disaster from earlier, handing out food and blankets to anyone who needed it, and medical aid to those who were injured. It brought a smile to Stela’s face when she saw the good people of Gresit actually accept the Speaker’s help and thank them afterwards. If only Sypha and Trevor were here to see this.

Once they were sure they had delivered enough aid to the people, they went back to their original dwelling place. The door was destroyed, as was much of the roof and there was a lot of rubble inside the old house.

“Do we clear this up now or wait for later?” Stela asked the Elder as the other Speakers shuffled inside.

“Later, for now we must get some sleep, especially you.” He responded and gave her a tired smile. “After all that fighting last night you must be very tired.”

“That I am, but I should at least clear some of this mess away so we could all have more room to sleep.”

“Do what you must.”

With some of the other Speaker’s help, Stela set about clearing up the rubble to have more room. As she was clearing, she heard shouting outside the house and looked outside to see-

“Trevor! Sypha!” She yelled as she rushed towards them. Unharmed and quite tired, but alive.

"You two had me so worried! I didn't know what to do or when you'd come back- I panicked and ran to get the other Speakers because I thought you two fell right to where they were and they said neither of you two were with them!" Stela said as she grabbed their arms. "What happened to you two down there?!"

"Well we found that sleepy god Sypha has been looking for." Trevor explained as Sypha managed to dislodge her arm out of Stela's grip. "Turns out he's a half vampire, can fight, and he's the son of Dracula and the woman who you saw got burned a year ago with your brother."

Stela's eyes widened. "Wait, does he have a large scar on his chest?" She asked and Trevor nodded, very confused. "Oh my god...oh my god…"

"Stela?" Stela released Trevor's arm as the hunter moved away to reveal familiar young man who was staring at her in shock. Was it...it couldn't be...

"Adrien...oh my god...Adrien is that you?" She asked, her voice trembling slightly. The half vampire nodded as he moved closer to her and held still as she lifted her hands to touch his face.

"Hello stardust." He said softly. The young woman gave a small gasp at the old childhood nickname that turned into a choked sob before she flung her arms around him and began to cry into his shoulder. "You've certainly grew more emotional."

"Sh-shut up you half blood sucker." Stela said, giving a shaky laugh. "Oh thank God you're alive, you had me so worried! I was so scared when I couldn't find you in Gresit, when I went into the catacombs with Trevor to look for Sypha I started to lose hope that I-I-"

"There, there, I'm perfectly fine." Adrien said gently and lifted her head off his shoulder to wipe away the tears from her face with his hand. "Really, when did you get so emotional easily?"

"I've always been emotional, you know that!"

"So…" Trevor said looking between them in confusion. "You two are...what exactly?"

"Siblings, she's my little sister." Adrien responds, earning a loud scoff from his sister.

"Little?! I'm three years older than you, I'm your  _ big  _ sister and you know that!" Stela snapped and gave him a kick to the leg. "Just because you hit several growth spurts and got taller than me doesn't mean-"

"Wait wait wait!" Trevor interrupted. "You," he points to Stela before pointing to her brother, "are related to  _ that _ ?"

The two look at each other before looking to Trevor and a very confused Sypha. "We don't even look alike." The half vampire said with a frown.

"I'm his  _ adopted _ older sister, his mother took me in when I was little." Stela explains and pinches Adrien's ear, earning a small yelp from him. "This little shit just likes claiming he's the older one because he's taller, but that's just a lie."

"Oh that explains it, when he said you were his sister I was wondering where your fangs were." Sypha said with a small laugh.

"If she was a vampire I would have known and I would have probably staked her on the spot." Trevor pointed out and the half vampire glared at him before hugging his sister to his chest.

"I'm expecting you to treat my sister with the utmost respect, Belmont."

"I've been around him for more than two days, I'm fine." Stela muttered. "I can handle myself."

"Well then explain that black eye."

"Adrien!"

“I...I’m going inside.” Sypha said quickly, gesturing to the house where the Speakers were gathering outside to see what all the commotion was and grabbed Trevor’s arm. “Come on, you really need rest.”

Before Trevor could even protest, Sypha was already pulling him away back to the old house, leaving the two Tepes sibling alone.

“You’ve cut your hair.” Adrien noted, his hand rising up to run his fingers through his sister’s now short hair.

“Too much trouble to care for, plus I had to disguise myself to avoid drawing attention." She laughed, earning a small smile from her brother.

"It suits you, though I still liked your long hair."

"Because you and mother got to braid it."

This earned her a soft laugh from her brother before he removed his hands from her hair to take her hands into his.

"Can you believe it, that we're actually doing this?" He asked her quietly. "I never thought we'd actually be successful in finding a hunter and a scholar, a Belmont and Speaker of all people."

"No doubt we'll be able to defeat our father with their help, I never thought I'd actually find a Belmont of all people to help us." Stela admits. "I stumbled upon him by accident, got him to travel here with me, and then we found Sypha and the other Speakers."

"Do tell me sister, how did you get this black eye?" Adrien asked, his hand straying to the bruise. "This certainly didn't come from the fight with the horde last night."

"O-oh that...ah... that's a funny story!" Stela laughed awkwardly. "Uh you see...there was a bar fight I got involved in

“Stardust, tell the truth.” There was a bit of an edge to his tone, one Stela had heard him only use when he was getting angry.

“It’s the truth! I got in the middle of a bar fight and came out with a black eye! I’m being honest Adrien!”

The half vampire studied her face, as if searching for any hints that she was lying about her injury. Of course it wasn’t a lie, just a half truth where she doesn’t admit that Trevor was the reason she got into a bar fight in the first place.

“Fine, I believe you.” Adrien admitted with a sigh. “Come on, go get some rest.”

The two siblings walked back to the crumbling house, hands intertwined the way they used to when they were younger. They entered the house to find the Speakers already preparing to sleep, laying out blankets on the floor. Trevor and Sypha were at a different part of the house near the fireplace, already having some blankets ready for the two siblings.

"You know, I am quite curious to know how Alucard's mother came to the decision to adopt you." Trevor commented as Stela sat herself down next to Sypha.

"You mentioned in the catacombs that your biological mother had died confronting a crowd of angry and superstitious people." The Speaker added.

"Alucard?" Stela asked, turning to her brother as he sat himself next to her.

"Just a name change, it's what the Walechians have been calling me." The half vampire responded.

"I'm still calling you by the name your mother gave you." Stela muttered before speaking up. "And to respond to your statement Trevor, it's a bit of a long story...and I'd rather not talk about it yet."

"Understandable. How about I tell you how I kicked your brother's ass." The hunter suggests with a cheeky grin, earning a scoff from the half vampire.

"Oh do tell, I'm quite interested in that." Stela laughs, earning a glare from her brother. "Oh come on, you had to hear from me how I got a black eye."

Trevor went on to explain how he and Sypha found Alucard, and the fight that ensued after he arose from his coffin with Sypha jumping in to correct him and add something that he forgot to add.

"You really thought this skinny blonde teenager was the great and fearful Lord of the night?" Stela laughed when Trevor finished and looked to her brother. "You got stabbed, whipped and kicked in the groin by a barely sober hunter!" 

"I think that's enough talking, you need sleep." Adrien said as he threw his blanket at her. "I'm going to patrol and make sure there are no demons lurking in the city, I'll be back by sunrise."

"I'm sleeping with my family, I'll leave you two be." Sypha said as she gathered her bedding. "Sleep well."

"G'night." Trevor said with a small wave as she walked back to the other Speakers before turning to Stela. "And then there were two."

"So what happened to your coat?" Stela asks softly, to not disturb the other Speakers.

"Lost it in all the rubble when the Gresit people attacked this place." Trevor responds with a yawn and grins. "Why, you wanted to sleep under my cloak this time?"

"And have my brother walk in to find us asleep together under it? He'll castrate you before you could even wake up."

"So that's a no."

"Big no."

Trevor gives another yawn as Stela removes her cloak from around her shoulders before throwing it at him. "What's this for?" He asks, raising a brow in suspicion.

"So you won't catch a cold, can't have you get sick on us before we even have a chance to kill my father." Stela responds as she wraps the blanket around herself before laying down.

Trevor was quiet for a few moments before he asks, "Are you sure you're alright with killing your father, Stela?"

He assumed she had fallen asleep when he heard her say, "Yes, it has to be done. There's no other way to stop him."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Now we've got four idiots on their way to kill Dracula and save Romania


	8. |•| Fighting Lessons |•|

Stela awoke the next morning to find her brother seated next to her and scowling at a wall, a small stick in his hands as he stabbed it into the ground.

"Adrien?" She called out, sitting up and trying to rub the sleep out of her eyes. The scowl was replaced with a surprised expression before it shifted into his normal brooding expression with a hint of a smile.

"Good morning little sister." He greeted as he dropped the stick to the ground. "Sleep well?"

"A lot better than I used to, find any demons lurking in the shadows?" Stela responds.

"No, or at least none I could find."

"Good, because I managed to kill several last night while you were getting to know our new friends."

Alucard glanced over at Trevor, who was still asleep and snoring softly. "May I ask why were you two asleep under your cloak?"

Stela blinks in surprise. "Pardon?"

"Earlier this morning when I came back from patrolling to make sure you were alright, I found you both asleep under your cloak. You were still both asleep when I moved you away."

Stela tried to come up with an answer, but how could she if she didn't know what her brother was talking about?

"We both fell asleep apart from each other, I don't know what you're talking about." She admits with a small frown. "Adrien are you seeing things?"

"Absolutely not!" The dhampir exclaimed and scowled at the sleeping man. "Then can you explain why does he have your cloak?"

"Because he was cold and I didn't want him to die on us." Stela responds. "Nothing happened while you were out patrolling the city, I'm fine. And either or both of us probably woke up feeling cold and just got under my cloak and blankets."

"Nothing better have happened, otherwise I'd be burying our hunter right now."

"Adrien!"

"Shut up...I'm trying to sleep…" Trevor groaned from under the cloak.

"Get up." Alucard stormed over to where the hunter slept and yanked the cloak off. "Now!"

"Fuck off." Trevor muttered and swatted at the vampire's hands.

"Fighting so early in the morning?" Stela heard Sypha ask as the sleepy Speaker approached her yawning.

"Apparently my brother found us asleep under my cloak and is probably assuming the worst." Stela responds as Trevor tried to blindly grab the cloak back, complaining about the cold.

"Well I'm sure nothing happened between you two, Trevor mentioned last night you've slept together before."

"Don't say it like that, all we did was fall asleep next to each other under the same tree."

"I'm fucking tired, and you're already pissing me off!" Trevor yelled as he got to his feet. Alucard didn't even cower at the harsh tone the other man used, instead he just glared at him.

"I'm warning you Belmont, if you so much as lay a hand on my sister or do anything inappropriate to her, I'll see to it myself that you'll really be the last of your house."

"That's enough, both of you!" Stela snapped as she got between them, placing a hand on their chests to push them apart. "We're supposed to be working together to save the world, not tear each other apart! If you two can't get along by yourselves I'll force you to get along, understand?"

Alucard gave Trevor one last glare before nodding. "Very well, but just to let you know, I'm only being defensive about you because as your brother I'm supposed to protect you from idiotic men."

"You dare accuse me of-" Trevor began before Sypa got between him and Stela.

"Enough, both of you!" She scolded. "It feels like I'm working with children, and even a pair of fussy toddlers are better behaved than the two of you!"

"Stela is right, you all can't be at each other's throats like this and expect to defeat Dracula while you fight amongst each other." The elder said from the other side of the house where the other Speakers were packing up their blankets. "How can you all expect to work as a team when you all fight amongst yourselves?"

"You two need to blow off some steam, Trevor, come with me." Stela said as she gently pushed her brother back and grabbed the hunter's hand to pull him away. "A good way to blow off steam is to hit something, and I know just the thing."

Alucard started to protest as his sister dragged their hunter out of the house and started to move when Sypha stopped him.

“Do you not trust your sister well enough to be alone with a man?” She asked with a frown. “I may have only known them both for a day but from what I can see, Trevor would never hurt your sister. Also even if he did try to hurt her she can defend herself.”

“She’s been alone for an entire year, of course I’m going to worry for her safety!” Alucard tried to argue before Sypha silenced him with a look.

“I get it, you’re worried he’ll try to assault her, but Trevor is a good man and honorable enough to not hurt Stela like that. Have a little faith in them, they’ll be fine alone.”

💫💫🌟💫💫

"You want  _ me  _ to teach you how to fight so you won't feel useless when we have to go fight your father?" Trevor asked and Stela as they stood in the courtyard of the city that was empty, save for a few townspeople trying to remove a pile of corpses and shoo some crows away from the bodies. She nodded and he noticed her cheeks turn pink in embarrassment.

"Yeah...I know I said I picked up a few things over the past year but you saw how useless I was during the bar fight the other day." She admitted. "And then the fight on our first night in Gresit against the horde I was no help at all, unlike you and Sypha I didn't really do anything."

"You took down several demons on your own when Sypha and I fell under the city, that doesn't mean you did nothing to help." Trevor pointed out. "And you managed to knock out a fully grown man who was taller than the two of us by hitting him in the face with your elbow earlier this week, now I'd say you're not too shabby in a fist fight. Also you have silver knives, those are used to kill vampires and werewolves."

"Throwing that one by your head was complete luck." Stela said with a small laugh. "Really Trevor, I'm terrible at fighting. When we were younger, my brother taught himself to sword fight and offered to teach me but at the time I wasn’t interested because I was busy learning how to be a doctor like our mother. Kind of wish I took up his offer before she was killed, that would have come in handy when we confront my father. And I don't want to have to ask my brother to teach me, he's never killed demons or gotten into an actual fist fight with anyone. And I feel like he's going to be mostly lecturing me on something stupid instead of showing me what to do."

"Alright you do have a point on that one." The hunter let out a small laugh. "Fine, I'll teach you how to  _ properly _ fight. Maybe even show you how to use those knives too so you won't accidentally stab someone who's not a vampire. Better yet I'll show you more than fighting techniques."

"Let's just keep this professional, please?"

Trevor gave a small laugh before he took Stela's hands and arranged them into fists and then into a fighting position. "Alright, you're going to want to properly punch someone, and you want to hit the right places to knock your opponent over or gain the upper hand in a fight. Try to hit me."

"In the face or in the chest?" Stela asked, lowering her hands slightly.

"Anywhere is fine, just try and hit me."

She raised her hands to their original position and threw a punch fight at his face, but he managed to catch her fist.

"You'll have to be faster, you'll have a better chance taking someone by surprise." Trevor said as Stela threw another punch with her other fist and he caught it with his free hand. "Not bad really, but you could use some practice."

"I grew up in a house where I wasn't allowed to get into fist fights, and I had to watch bar fights to see what fighting looked like." Stela said as she quickly threw her knee up. Trevor quickly released both her hands and used them to block her attack.

"Predictable, but you could have tried headbutting me in the face instead of going for the testicles."

Stela continued to throw punches and kicks, aiming for different places as Trevor continued to block her attacks. At this point she was already starting to grow exhausted, but she wasn't ready to give up yet, not until she was able to land at least one punch or kick on Trevor or cause him to fall over.

"You sure you don't want to take a break? You look exhausted." The hunter commented as he blocked another punch that his companion threw at his chin. "Don't want your brother telling me off for overworking you like this."

"I'll stop when I finally land a punch." Stela replied and threw another punch that was caught. "I'm not going to stop until I do one thing right."

"You really don't know when to give up do you?"

"It's all part of my charm Belmont, you should know that by now."

"Alright stop." Trevor said as he grabbed both her wrists to stop her. Without warning, Stela's knee flew right up and Trevor gave a loud yelp of pain before releasing her and fell right onto his knees clutching the sore spot. "Oh fuck…"

"Oh-oh my God I am so sorry! I didn't mean to do it that hard!" Stela yelled as she dropped to the floor to help him up. "A-are you alright?"

"Fine, I'm fine." Trevor assured her as he sat up. "Oh that's definitely going to hurt."

"Ah, I’ll get Sypha!" Stela yelled, as Trevor weakly tried to get back onto his feet. “No no stay down- SYPHA!”

💫💫🌟💫💫

"She did that to you?" Sypha asked, trying not to laugh as the hunter laid curled up in a ball on the floor where he had been sleeping earlier. "She's so small compared to you and she inflicted that much damage?"

"Took me by surprise, wasn’t expecting it." Trevor groaned and let loose a weak chuckle. "She's not that bad at fighting."

"I'm surprised she even came to you for advice." Alucard commented from his corner of the house. "Where is she now?"

"Outside of the house." Sypha pointed to the ruined door where Stela was on the floor holding her knees to her chest with her face buried in them.

"I said I was sorry!" She yelled, her voice muffled. "How many times must I apologise?"

"Stardust come back inside, there's no need for you to feel so guilty about pulling such a cheap trick on him.”

"Is she always like that?" Trevor asked as Stela walked back into the house with an embarrassed look on her face. He was honestly glad the Speakers had left the house to aid Gresit some more before they left and to pack up their belongings since they were planning on leaving later that afternoon. Last thing he needed was a crowd of strangers staring at him while he was trying to ignore the pain Stela had delivered to him.

"She was raised not to fight, first time she and I ever got physical with each other, she locked herself in her room and didn't come out for a few hours spewing apologies to me and our parents." Alucard explained and gave a small chuckle as his sister sat down next to him. "My father was actually more impressed than angry. And he found it funny that we actually got in a fight over a book."

"She punched you in the face over a book?"

"We were at that age where siblings tend to fight over simple things. After that she tried not to get physical with me over books."

“I was ten!” Stela protests, her cheeks turning a darker shade of pink now. “Also it was a book on astrology too, and stop telling them embarrassing stories about me!”

This drew a laugh from Trevor, who was still curled up in the corner, and Sypha as well but she quickly stopped.

“So, what were you trying to accomplish outside with our hunter, sister?” Alucard asked, amusement in his tone.

“He was teaching me to fight...I don’t want to be useless…”

“You’re the farthest thing from being useless Stardust, I’ve heard you killed some nasty demons who stayed behind and tried to run away. And you can heal our mortal companions, that’s not useless either.”

“I can’t wield a sword Adrien, you think I’m just going to be throwing knives at our father when we have to fight him?” Stela snaps, the embarrassment leaving her face. “I don’t have magic like Sypha, or a magical whip like Trevor, or speed and a sword like you!” “If you think punching our father is going to solve anything, you’re thinking like a Belmont.” Alucard stated, ignoring the glare Trevor was giving him. “And since I’m here, I think it’s about time you had that sword fighting lesson I was supposed to give you. Here, found this when I was out patrolling last night, figured you could put some use to it.”

The vampire handed her a cloth covered object and unwrapped it to reveal a short sword.

“Adrien-”

“Come on, it’s time we put that sword to good use.”


	9. |•| Almost There |•|

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Pardon my shitty description of the battle in this chapter

"Help me gather some wood for campfire?" Trevor asks Stela as they were setting up camp for the night. Darkness had fallen quickly when Gresit was a few miles behind them and Alucard had suggested they rested their horses to not wear them out.

"Sure, Adrien stay with Sypha." Stela said as she handed her brother the blankets she was carrying. Much to her surprise (and a bit of relief), her brother didn't protest about her going into the woods alone with Trevor.

"You know, I do hope we find your family library alright. It'd be a shame that we came all this way just to find it destroyed by the elements." Stela said as she began to gather large sticks.

"I'm sure it's alright." Trevor assured her. "I think you and Sypha would like it, it's filled with lots of books."

"We'll see, the most books I've ever seen in one place were in my father's library."

"Well I'm sure your father doesn't have books on how to slay gorgons, or a more correct way to kill demons.”

Stela laughed. “My father’s library was filled with books of medical research on both humans, vampires, and I think some on creatures of the night. I remember finding books on astrology too, he introduced them to me since I loved trying to climb onto the roof of one of the towers with my little brother to stargaze.”

"Hard to imagine that sulky brother of yours actually having fun." Trevor comments as he collected his sticks, tucking them under one arm and making sure he didn't accidentally snap them.

"And I find it hard to imagine a man like you was once an innocent and cute child who thought the most important thing in the world was trying to find lizards in the gardens." Stela retorts, a small smirk on her lips as Trevor makes a face. "Really, it's hard to imagine you were cute and a baby."

"I don't know whether to laugh at your remark or poke fun back at you." The hunter admits as his companion starts to walk back to the camp and followed. "And I was downright adorable as a child."

"I'll need proof of that."

The two soon arrived back at their camp, Alucard setting up a circle of stones to make their fire pit and Sypha unhitching their horses to let them graze and rest.

"Good to have you back!" Sypha greeted as they entered their little camp. "No problems finding wood?"

"Nah, lots of twigs out here." Trevor responds as he drops his pile of sticks in front of Alucard. "Need help setting a fire?"

"Let me do it, I've made camp fires before." Stela said, dropping to her knees and began placing her sticks in a tent-like shape inside the stones. Sypha aided her in lighting the fire, just using a bit of her magic to ignite the sticks.

"So, who's hungry?" Sypha asked with a grin.

The three ate a mix of roasted meat with some roasted apple pieces, passing around a water skin to drink from. They were mostly quiet while they ate, Stela, Alucard and Sypha quietly commenting on something while Trevor just remained quiet and chewed on his food.

"I'm still not completely clear on why you don't catch fire in the daylight." Sypha said to Alucard after they finished their meal.

"I'm half human, my mother's name was Lisa and she was mortal." Alucard explained.

"I would very much like to hear the story of how that happened." Sypha said with a small smile and Alucard chuckled. "Along with how she probably managed to convince your father to adopt Stela into your family."

"She convinced the Lord of darkness to let a starving human child stay with them simply convincing him the same way she convinced him to teach her medicine." Stela laughs

"She sounds interesting." Sypha comments. “Took him a few moments to actually agree

"She was remarkable." Alucard said with a smile. "She beat on the door until let her in, and when he did she demanded he teach her how to be a doctor.”

“Wait, Dracula taught a human woman how to be a doctor?” Trevor asks, immediately sitting up. “What was first, bloodletting?” He adds with a snort.

“You think you’re so funny.” Stela mutters. “Our father-”

“Dracula.”

“Is a man of science.” Alucard finishes, ignoring Trevor’s remark. "A philosopher and a scholar, and knows things our society has forgotten three times over. Do you still not understand the enormity of what we're doing? He's gone mad."

"And from that, there's no recovering him." Stela adds quietly.

"Shame." Trevor comments with a shrug.

"No really, it is a shame. He could have changed the world." Stela says shaking her head.

"He probably would have if mother hadn't died." Alucard adds. "She had sent him out into the world, and that's why he wasn't there when the bishop took her."

"She sent him away?" Sypha asks.

"She sent him to travel, to learn the true state of the world, the nature of humans and how they lived." Alucard explains.

"She was turning him."

"Imagine if he could have used that knowledge, improving lives."

"If the religious inquisition hadn't proved true his worst instincts about humans." Stela says with a frown.

"And now he's using her death as an excuse to destroy the world." Trevor points out.

"Oh the world will still be here Belmont." Alucard says glancing at his sister and taking her hand, which she hadn't noticed she was gripping tightly. "Trees will still grow, birds will still sing, animals will still hump away in the undergrowth. But you won't be here, none of you."

"The sun will still set, but we won't see it rise. It will only be Dracula and his war council of the night." Stela adds as she relaxes her grip.

She leans back against the wheel of the wagon as she listens to her brother talk more of her father's plans of what he was going to do once he wiped out everyone in Romania. Assuming her father even succeed, Stela knew he or one of his generals would probably kill her. Probably Godbrand, the old prick who still creeped her out after all these years ever since she first met him. As she was gazing at the fire, Stela heard a soft growling sound that made the hair on her neck stand on end

“What was that?” Sypha asks in panic.

“Animals humping in the undergrowth.” Alucard responds before the noise is sounded again, this time a little louder. “Wait, no.”

“Put it out!” Stela hisses frantically as she and Trevor kick snow and dirt onto the fire to smother it.

“What’s the closest town to here, is it Gresit?” Trevor asks once their fire is extinguished.

“Argesh is closer to us.” Sypha responds as the growling sounds again.

Alucard moves towards the road, his hand on the handle of his sword as Trevor runs for the trees and expertly scales up one, leaving the two women alone at the wagon.

“Yes I think I’m going to die tonight.” Stela mutters as she and Sypha yank their hoods over their heads. “I don’t have a long range weapon or have magic fireballs to throw from a safe distance, or incredible speed and agility, I’m probably going to die tonight before we can even reach the Belmont household at the hands of some stupid low level demons.”

“Well at least you have a weapon to protect yourself if it gets close to either of us, if Trevor and Alucard can’t keep them from getting close.” Sypha assures her. "You helped kill several demons in Gresit after Trevor and I disappeared for a while, you can handle these ones."

"Oh my god they're breathing fire!" Stela exclaims when she hears the sound of flames being fired. Sypha jumps to her feet and rushes in the direction that Alucard went with Stela right behind her.

The two found both Trevor and Alucard dodging balls of fire being thrown at them. Sypha muttered something under her breath before she stopped the fire from hitting the men's faces and started flinging them back at the demons. One demon, the biggest one of the group, blasted a column of fire at the Speaker, but she managed to deflect it.

"Move!" Trevor yells as he grabs Stela and Alucard, yanking them both to the ground as Sypha causes the demon to explode.

"Wow... wasn't expecting this." Stela mutters when she raises her head to see the mess of demon bodies.

"I don't think we're going to Argesh tonight." Alucard comments as he helps his sister up. "Anyone hurt?"

"Little bruised when Trevor grabbed me and threw me to the floor, but other than that I'm alright." Stela responds and Trevor mumbles an apology. "The horses haven't ran off, so we should probably hitch them up and get moving to find somewhere else to sleep."

"One mile from here and we rest, take turns keeping watch for anymore demons." Sypha suggests with a nod as she approaches them. "You know, if the Belmont trove is still intact and has any helpful books of magic we can use, I can teach you some magic so you can help figure out how to trap the castle."

"Guess it's worth a shot then."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next chapter y'all getting some Trevor and Stela bonding moments, I promise


	10. |•| The Belmont Trove |•|

Another day had passed before night fell again as the four traveled away from their last destination. Sypha now sat in the wagon with Alucard while Trevor and Stela sat up front taking turns driving.

"You know, if we still have time, I can teach you some more fighting skills." Trevor offers as Stela was driving while he leaned back. "I know there's some weapons in the trove I can show you how to use."

"Going to teach her to use a whip too?" Alucard asked from the back of the wagon.

"Assuming we have more than one consecrated whip in the hold, then perhaps I can." Trevor responds, turning back to look at Alucard. "You and Sypha can read, I want to actually help your sister train some more."

"Last time you trained her, she kicked you in the soft spot." Sypha points out, trying to hide a small smile from behind her cloak sleeve. "Don't want to repeat that again."

"I'll be fine, I've been hit in worse places." The hunter mutters as he turns his attention forward. As they continued forward,Trevor suddenly sat up. "There, that's my tree."

Stela looks to the left to see an old dried up tree with large cracks in it.

"I used to play in that tree. We're near the house." He says as they pass the old tree.

"It's hard to imagine you playing." Sypha comments from the back of the wagon.

"I suppose so." Trevor chuckles. "It was everything that tree. It was my house, my boat and my fort, anything I wanted it to be." He sighs quietly before looking back at the tree with a sad smile.

"Perhaps when we finish this we can find a way to restore it." Stela suggests as she flicked the reins. "Save it for the next generation of Belmonts."

"Assuming we can keep this one alive." Alucard comments quietly.

They soon arrived to what Stela could assume was left of the old Belmont estate. The stone railing surrounding a dried up fountain was broken and crumbling while up ahead stood a large manor. Seeing such a beautiful structure in such a broken state was a rather sad sight. Sypha lit some torches for the four of them once they tethered their horses and made their way to the house, up the broken stone steps and soon found themselves walking through the old hallways of the Belmont home.

"This was your home, you grew up here." Sypha said as they walked. "I can't imagine what it was like to grow up in a single space."

"It was...it was fine." Trevor responds as he examines something on the floor. "Wasn't the worst way to grow up."

"How old were you when your family home was taken?" Alucard asks.

"Thirteen, fourteen, something like that."

"You've been on your own since you were thirteen?" Sypha asks in surprise.

"Maybe twelve, who remembers that sort of thing?" Trevor asks with a snort.

"Twelve." Alucard mutters.

"I was eight when I lost my home, and I still remember it vividly." Stela comments. "Thirteen years ago, after thirteen years I still remember fearing for my life and worrying for my mother until I met Lisa and her family."

"Is there a point to these questions?" Trevor asks as he stood up.

"I understood that I had much more of a childhood than you did." Alucard responds.

"And your dad's fucking Dracula."

Sypha and Alucard began laughing at his remark. Stela of course, was rather confused.

"Is this an inside joke I'm supposed to understand?" She asks as Trevor joins in on the laughing.

"She's too innocent don't tell her."

After a while Trevor soon stops at a pile of rubble and moves a chunk away to reveal something underneath.

"I think this is it." He announced loudly, passing his torch to Sypha and starts trying to lift the rubble.

"Your hidden entrance looks like a Hearthstone." Alucard comments as Stela hands him her own torch to aid Trevor.

"Just help us clear it!" She grunts as she tries to lift the rock. Alucard hands her back her torch and begins grabbing chunks of the heavy rubble and began tossing them over his shoulder as if they weighed no heavier than a small stone. Stela bit back a laugh when she saw the startled (Sypha) and annoyed (Trevor) faces of her friends as they watched her brother clear the rubble out of the way to reveal a large stone door with the Belmont crest and strange runes surrounding it.

"Congratulations, you just discovered a big piece of stone." Alucard announced.

"It's the door." Trevor responds.

"Do we lift it?" Sypha asks as Alucard kneels down to grab the bottom of the stone.

He gives it a tug and frowns. "That's odd, I don't seem to be able to get any purchase on it."

"Maybe because it's magically sealed?" Stela suggests as she holds her torch over Sypha to give her better light as she examined the carvings on the stone.

"Ah, I see now. You won't be able to lift it." Sypha announces.

"Well my family got it up somehow." Trevor states. "I was taken down there as a child."

"Did you see them lift it?"

"No, the brought me through it once it was already opened."

"Maybe because it's a magic door." Stela comments. "Look at the markings."

"Perhaps...stand back." Sypha announces as Alucard takes her torch.

The three moved back and watch as she examined the stone again before putting her hands together. The stone began to glow blue as Sypha placed the tips of her fingers on it and began to chant an incantation. In a flash of light, the door faded away to reveal a set of stairs leading down into the dark.

"Open sesame." Sypha announces proudly as Alucard hands her back her torch.

"Was that an Enoquian ward?" He asks as she accepts her torch back."

"Yes, I know that language." Sypha responds proudly.

"Well well, naughty Belmonts hunting all the terrible things of the forest but sitting on a magic door opened by a tough language." Alucard said with a smirk and Trevor rolled his eyes.

"Told you it was a magic door." Stela laughs.

"I didn't know it was a fucking magic door, doesn't make us black magicians." Trevor responds as he starts walking down the stairs.

"But you do know that the word Terlock means of death, right?" Alucard asks as his sister and Sypha start to follow Trevor down the stairs.

"Shut up."

"It's the magical door of death Belmont."

"Are you coming or what?"

The four of them soon found themselves walking through a dark hallway that emerged into a large room with banners of the Belmont crest hanging from the ceiling and a large portrait of what Stela guessed was the founder of the family. Another staircase could be seen spiraling downwards into the dark. And unlike the upper part of the house, this part of the manor was unruined.

“Belmont isn't even a Walechian name, that just dawned on me." Sypha said as they began walking down the winding staircase. 

“No, the family originated from the kingdoms of France, but we moved here a few hundred years ago.”

"Moved or chased?" Alucard asked.

"Moved, thank you very much?"

"With people behind you waving pitchforks and torches?"

"Adrian.” Stela warned, casting her brother a look.

“No, no. We’re professionals, we move where the work is.” Trevor says as thy soon reach the bottom of the stairs and walk towards a large door.

“What does that even mean?” Sypha asks as they approach the door.

“All the dark things moved into the east, I think it was a Leon Belmont who went into the region first.” Trevor responds as he struggled to juggle the door handle. When it gave way, he pushed the door open. "And built this house, and dubbed the foundations for everything under it."

The others followed him into the dark room, only able to see the outlines of the bookshelves a few feet from them until Sypha cast a spell to send fire from her torch to light the numerous lamps in the room to illuminate the place. Stela gasped as she and Sypha ran forward to see that there were many bookshelves below where they were at, along with several cabinets containing various objects that looked like monster body parts, giant statues and what looked like ablage skeleton of some sort of fanged creature hanging from several chains and suspended over the floor.

"My god…" Sypha whispers as she leans over the railing of the stairs to look down at what was below.

"The memory of my family, all that's left of us." Trevor says as he starts to make his way down the long stairs.

"Is it organized? Is there a way to find things?" Sypha asks as she and the Tepes siblings followed him down the stairs.

"I imagine one sacrifices a chicken and divines the book you want from it's intestines." Alucard says as he passes Trevor. "Maybe Belmont has a crystal ball in here, you could ask."

"Shut up." Trevor mutters as Stela walks past, casting a glare at the vampire.

"Don't mind him, he's just as impressed as we are." Stela says, placing a hand gently on Trevor's shoulder before nudging him to follow her brother.

"It's an impressive tip Belmont, but it is nonetheless a tip." Alucard says as the other three follow him down the stairs. "Your ancestors were apparently all mentally ill hoarders, I fully expect to find cats mummified under these shelves. Unless your family preferred to eat them."

"Adrien!” Stela scolds before Trevor pushes past her brother.

“There’s an index on the lecturn at the bottom, you can find everything in there.” He says, casting another glare at Alucard. “As far as I can remember, no one in my family ever owned cats, and last time I was here I never found a mummified one either.”

“So this is really a managed collection.” Sypha said as they reached the bottom of the staircase.

“It’s the work of generations, an archive of what we’ve learned or found since the days of Leon Belmont.” Trevor explained as Stela and Alucard went to explore the other shelves while Trevor and Sypha went to examine the other ones.

“Oh god…” Stela murmured when she saw her brother standing in front of a cabinet filled with multiple skulls. Several she noticed had sharp fangs at the teeth, indicating those were vampire skulls.

“What was your Leon Belmont doing in Walechia?” She hears Sypha ask.

“Hunting Dracula.” Alucard responds, looking at the cabinet of skulls sadly. Stela noticed that he had his eyes on a rather small one, and it took her a moment to realize it must have belonged to a child vampire.

“I think I’m going to be sick.” Stela murmurs as she moves away from the skulls, deciding to turn her attention to the books on the shelves opposite of where the cabinet was. Several were laying on the floor, so she began to pick several of them up when she noticed a large chest hidden behind a broken shelf. “Trevor, I think I found something.”

Curious, Trevor hurried over to the shelf and noticed the chest. “Bloody hell, is that what I think it is?” He asks and Stela shrugs.

“Careful Trevor, you almost sounded excited about something.” Sypha jokes as Trevor begins to kick at the broken shelf to make room.

“It can’t be...could it?” He mutters as he grabs the chest’s side handles and manages to lug it out of its hiding place while Stela jumps out of the way.

“I’ll try and put these away.” She says as she gathers the other fallen books, carefully dusting them off with the sleeve of her tunic and stacking them neatly. Maybe when Sypha was done looking at the index she could help her put away the books or find new places for them in the vast library.

“What on earth is that ugly thing?” Stela hears Sypha ask and turns to see Trevor stand up with some sort of metal whip in his hands and the biggest grin she had ever seen on his face.

“I can’t believe they hid it, it’s the morning star!” He says as he drops the large metal ball thing attached to the whip to the floor to examine the length.

“Please don’t start swinging that thing around.” Stela says as she finishes stacking the fallen books.

“Want me to teach you how to use it?” Trevor asks as she picks up a stack to move it away from the ruined shelves. “You can practice with my whip.” 

“Mmm...we’ll see, I want to go through these books first to see which ones can help us trap and locate the castle.”

“I think there’s books on weaponry studies, you can read that.”

“Castle trapping first, weapon study later.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> https://www.instagram.com/p/B3VYwEOFAMx/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link Character creator edit of Stela's season 2 (and part of season 1) outfit
> 
> Also we getting season 3 soon! The creators haven't revealed a release date on Twitter yet, but accroding to someone on the Castlevania discord server I'm in, I think they revealed audio of the season 3 trailer and everyone attending the panel went nuts over it.  
> Whenever the release date is, I'm probably gonna end up starting the drafts with the events of the third season and posting them on here probably in 2020 to give everyone time to see the new season and not be spoiled when reading this story


	11. |•| Have Faith |•|

“So what have you found so far?” Sypha asks Stela as she approaches her with a book in hand.

“Not much, just some books on spells written in some other languages I don’t recall learning, an anatomy book on fire drakes and the various uses of their body parts, and an old diary belonging to one of the Belmont’s wives who was a magician.” Stela responds as she shuts the book she was reading to placed it back on the shelf she grabbed it from. “Nothing useful so far, how are you faring?”

“Couldn’t find anything yet that could help, but I did find this.” Sypha says with a small giggle and holds up a large leather book.  
Curious as usual, Stela takes the book from her friend and opens it to the middle. Sypha nearly bursts out laughing when she sees the girl’s eyes widen in horror before she slammed the book shut with a flushed face and shoves it back to her.

“Sypha..why the hell is there a book of spells on...that?” Stela asks, trying to cover her flushed cheeks. “Why would the Belmonts keep a book of spells of this lying around?”

“I don’t even know, I just found it!” Sypha says, trying to hide her laughter and doing a rather poor job of it. “I’m sorry, I assumed that since you were studied anatomy like your mother who was a doctor you were used to this sort of thing. And I thought you’d find it just as funny as I did.”

“Well I grew up in a brothel before living with Lisa and her family, but that doesn’t mean I didn’t cover my eyes to avoid seeing men’s private parts.”

“Brothel?”

Stela nods before grabbing another book to flip to the middle. Seeing that she wasn’t ready to talk about her past, Sypha decided to try and change the subject.

“My apologies, I’ll put this away.” She said as she quickly turned to put the book back in the shelves. “So, have you taken up Trevor’s offer in training for the inevitable fight that is to come?”

“Assuming I can find time to, I was considering his offer.”

“I’m sure he’ll be a better teacher than Alucard, he was trained to fight and kill vampires and demons. And speaking of Trevor, I have noticed you two have been pretty close since I first met you two. How long have you known each other?”

“Since we met you? I only knew him for about a...night and a half?”

“Really? Seemed like you knew him for a much longer time.”

Stela laughs. “Seems that way, doesn’t it.”  
"Well, I think you can start that lesson now. He's waiting by the index with a lot of weapons he found."  
Stela thanked Sypha before heading off to that spot. She found Trevor arranging something on a large blanket and muttering to himself. The index and it’s stand had been moved near one of the shelves, probably to prevent it from getting destroyed.  
“Wow, Sypha wasn’t kidding when she said you found a lot of other weapons.” She said as she approached the hunter. “And you weren’t kidding about actually giving me an actual fighting lesson focused on weapons.”  
“Well considering how you can’t get close to a demon and punch it without getting incinerated, I figured I could show you how to use long ranged weapons like a whip or a spear for this lesson.” Trevor responds as he turns to face her with a big smile.  
“You seem pretty happy to be teaching me.” Stela laughs as she approaches him. “Alright teacher, teach me.”  
“Alright, what do you want to use first? Trevor asks, gesturing to the pile of weapons on the blanket. “Spear, sword, longbow we have some whips hidden somewhere in here too if you want a really good long ranged weapon too.”  
Stela bit her lip as she studied the pile of weapons in front of her, unsure of what to choose. If she chose a spear, what were her chances of the speartip or the length breaking in the middle of battle and she was left weaponless? The longbow seemed like a good one to use as well, but if she ran out of arrows too soon she could use the bow itself as a weapon. As for the whip, how long would it take for her to get the hang of using it until she was able to swing it with such precision like Trevor?  
“I...I can’t decide.” She admits and gestures to the weapons. “Lots of good choices, whatever I choose will have to be what I fight with when we confront Dracula, and I won’t have that much time to see which one I’m better with too.”  
“It’s always a tough choice choosing your weapon, and we don’t really have that much time either.” Trevor agrees with a nod. “So you want to try one at a time to see which you can handle better?”  
Stela nods before Trevor bends over to grab a spear from the floor and hands it to her.  
“We’ll start with the spear. Easy to use, anything that’s long and thick like this can be used as a weapon if you don’t have the spear with you.”  
From the second floor of the bookshelves, Alucard watched his sister and the hunter, keeping an eye on them while occasionally glancing down at the book he had been examining. They seemed to be having fun, judging from the occasional laughter they let out when Stela would accidentally trip over her feet and Trevor would catch her, or when she would accidentally hit him over the head with her practice weapon. As much as he wanted her to learn to fight better so she wouldn’t die or get too badly injured during their upcoming fight, he just really wished he didn’t have to see that look in Trevor’s eyes every time he looked at Stela or when she smiled at him. He had seen that look too many times in his father’s eyes when he would gaze at their mother in such a loving way, and he wasn’t ready to lose his sister to a man probably not worthy of her affections. Call it a protective brother instinct, but the last thing he wanted was for this sort of thing to happen at the worst time.  
“Adrien! Have you found anything yet?” He hears Stela yell, followed by a loud “SHHH!” from Sypha and a laugh from Trevor.  
“Hey look at this!” Trevor yells from another corner of the library.  
With an annoyed sigh, Alucard carefully makes his way over to where he found Trevor, Stypha and Stela were at, the three of them standing in front of a large cracked mirror.  
“What the hell is this?” Trevor asked as he pulled the large blanket off the rest of the mirror.  
"You don't know?" Sypha asks as she approaches and takes a book from one of the shelves.  
"I don't know." He admits.  
“This is your house."  
"Do you know everything in your house?" Trevor asks as she puts the book away and walks over to examine the mirror.  
“I don’t have a house.” Sypha responds.  
"She doesn't have a house, she's a Speaker, she's a nomad." Alucard says from atop of the bookcase.  
"That was rhetorical." Trevor states as the half vampire jumps off the bookshelf to approach them.  
"A rhetorical house that she doesn't have." He states as he approached the mirror.  
"Just tell me what it is." Trevor says in a frustrated tone.  
"It was a magic mirror." Sypha says as Alucard examines the old thing.  
"Oh it's a distance mirror!" Stela exclaims. "I think we had a few in the castle, I remember seeing one in our father's study."  
"Some even allow matter to pass through them but…" Alucard ran a hand over the frame and frowned. "No, no this is just a simple viewing mirror. A little of the activation language is chipped, few of the runes need recutting but it's still workable." He turns to Trevor with a small amused smile. "You have the most interesting family junkyard, Belmont."  
"You're a cockward Alucard." Trevor snaps before Sypha grabs his hand.  
"Stop it." She warned him before dragging the hunter away to the other side of the bookshelves, leaving Alucard and Stela alone.  
"Really, why do you have to keep doing that?" Stela asks her brother as she pulls a book off one of the shelves and flips it open. "Didn't our mother teach you to be polite to everyone?"  
"Just stating the truth." Alucard said with a shrug as he used a gloved hand to wipe away more of the dust on the mirror. "Also, I don't like what's been going on between you two lately."  
"Nothing is going on between us, we're just friends." Stela says with a frown as she tries paying attention to her book. "Tell me then little brother, what is it that you don't like what Trevor is doing ever since we started this journey?"  
“He’s very distracting to you and Sypha.” Alucard responds bluntly. "You take off from searching to start fighting with him, and laughing like we don't have some impending doom hanging over us."  
“Oh, so you’re saying I’m not focused enough on this task?” Stela asks slamming her book shut and shoves it into her brother’s hands. “If you haven’t noticed, Adrien, we both have been searching through these shelves for answers that we need ever since we arrived. I only take one break from researching to learn something that will keep me from killed, and you act like I just ran off into the more secluded area of the library to fuck him!”  
“I didn’t say-”  
“You act like I did!”  
That outburst surprised Alucard and Stela lets out a frustrated sigh.  
"Trevor is just trying to help me fight, if you haven't noticed I've been pretty useless when it comes to engaging in an actual fight." She says softly and reaches forward to place a hand on her brother's cheek. "I get that you're worried for me, we've been apart for over a year and you're scared that I'm going to be distracted by a man I've only known for a few days. Have some faith in us little brother."  
Alucard nods and places a hand on the hand resting on his cheek. “I have faith in you, just not so sure with him.”  
“Then find some faith in him little brother. Sypha and I have faith in Trevor that he will be able to help us, you just have to have faith in him too.”  
“Are you two done having a sibling scolding moment?” They hear Trevor ask. ALucard looked ready to retort something, but one look from Stela had him hold his tongue on that.  
“We’re done, now if you excuse me I have some books to finish looking through.” The half vampire said nodding to his sister and walked past Trevor and Sypha. “Also, don’t let Stela use a whip, try using the other weapons you found. And try not to injure her too much during your practicing.”  
“Huh, he actually didn’t insult me this time.” Trevor says as they watch Alucard walk off back towards the other side of the library.  
“Maybe because I told him to stop fighting with you.” Stela replies as she approaches him. “Come on, I want to see if I actually have much better aim with a longbow than you do.”


	12. |•| Finding the Answer |•|

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Really sorry for not updating in such a long time, both school and my new job have been occupying my time and some of my energy. Hopefully around Thanksgiving break or winter break with school is over and I don't have to worry about classwork anymore I'll be able to update the rest of season 2 scenes before going on hiatus while waiting for season 3 to be released

“Alright, I think we can agree that the spear works best for you. So we should practice with it a bit more.” Trevor says as Stela moves the speartip away from his neck after she had managed to knock him to the floor (again, this was the third time this evening).

“I think I want to take a bit of a break, relax a bit with the books.” Stela responds as she drops her weapon to the ground and bends over to help Trevor up. “I feel bad having my brother and Sypha do all the reading while I did nothing but played with weapons.”

“Alright, your choice.” Trevor shrugs and gestures to another part of the library. “You know exactly where to find me if you get bored, or want to knock me onto my ass again for the fourth time tonight."

"Oh so you have no problem with someone shorter and lighter than you knocking you onto the floor over and over." Stela asks teasingly and Trevor chuckles.

"When it comes to someone less experienced than me and who doesn’t piss me off, I have no problem with it. Now, go do your reading.”

Not needing to be told twice, Stela hurried for the stairs to head to the second floor. She remembered Sypha mentioning she found some books talking about the castle in one of the shelves there and she had been meaning to read them when she finished her training with Trevor. Once she found the shelf Sypha told her about, she grabbed two books out of the shelves and flipped one of them open to carefully read through it. This book talked about the structure of Dracula’s castle, and what the interior looked like, and a few pages later Stela found some theories of how Dracula possibly got the castle to move, all which were a bit weird and quite off.

“Well that certainly doesn’t make sense.” She mutters to herself as she put that book back in it’s old place and opened the other to examine it. As she was reading, she heard what sounded like Sypha shouting in excitement.

“Trevor! I have something!” Stela looks up from her book and hurries out of the shelves to see Sypha waving a book she was holding in the air with an excited look on her face and looking over the balcony.

“No, when I say what, that doesn’t mean I’d like to ask even more questions.” She hears Trevor say from below.

“Would you please- you’re the most annoying- just stop!” Sypha groaned in frustration as her friend approached her.

“What did you find?” Stela asks pointing to the book Sypha held in her hands. She could hear footsteps from below and from above, indicating Trevor and Alucard were coming.

“I think I found a locking spell!” Sypha says excitedly as she showed her the pages she had been reading. “Trevor’s family have an entire literature here about the castle, they tried for centuries to eliminate it’s main advantage. It transports itself through magical means!”

“Right, so you can’t attack it if it just jumps somewhere else.” Trevor says as he was approaching them.

“Yes, so some clever Belmont eventually formulated most of a locking spell.” Sypha explains. “A method to catch the castle and lock it down to a single location so it can be invaded.”

“Most of it.” They hear Alucard say from above in the other shelves.

“I can finish the final clauses of it myself, it’s all based on Adamical structure.” Sypha says as Trevor approaches the two girls and as ALucard was making his way down the ladder.

“I don’t ever recall Adamic, what is it exactly?” Stela asks and Sypha grins.

“Adamic is the original human language, the one spoken by Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. The one that was split into all other languages of the tower of Babble by God to prevent human cooperation.”

“Is that how you understand that story?” Alucard asks as he approaches the three humans. “Stela told me a different version she had heard when she was little.”

“Yeah, the version I heard was that he caused humans to speak other languages when they tried building a tower to reach the heavens to be better than God or something like that.” Stela said with a nod. “This sounds a little different.”

“Oh yes, the Speakers are the enemy of God. We live in cooperation and hide our stories inside ourselves so he could not strike us down in jealousy.”

Before anyone could say anything, they all heard a loud thud from above that shook the room slightly It sounded again and Stela could hear things falling off the shelves and breaking. Sypha looks up at the shaking ceiling and points up at it.

“See, God hates me!” She says as if to prove her point.

“That’s probably not God.” Alucard says as the room shakes again.

“Earthquake?” Stela asks as the room shakes again.

“No something is up there.” Trevor said and Stela heard the faint sound of something roaring loudly from upstairs. “Looks like Dracula sent some demons to stop us.”

“No, father wouldn’t do that.” Stela says as they hurry to the stairs and make their way to the bottom floor. “He wouldn’t just send a bunch of demons to kill us like this.”

The ceiling was now shaking hard enough to send dirt and small rubble falling down on them as Sypha ran off into the shelves to grab books while Alucard and Stela went to grab the distance mirror. By the time they returned with what they needed, Trevor was staring at the shaking ceiling and holding the spear Stela had been practicing with.

“Can we get that magic mirror working?” He asks as the two siblings set the mirror down to lean it against a bookshelf across from Sypha

“I think so, but I can’t do two things at once here.” Sypha says as the ceiling shakes again, this time a bit more violently.

“My sister and I know some Caldeic, we know how to operate a distance mirror.” Alucard says gesturing to the mirror and looks to his friends. “What shall we do?”

Stela looks to Sypha, who then looks to Trevor. He looks at them all in surprise. 

“Uh...I can’t do either of those things.” The hunter admits and ALucard approaches him.

"Come on Belmont! You're either the last son of a warrior dynasty or a lucky drunk, which is it?"

"No time to answer that, we'll guard the door." Stela says marching over to Trevor to grab the spear from him. "My Caldeic isn't as good as my brother's, and you will need some help keeping those things at bay so Sypha will have plenty of time to finish that locking spell."

"Okay, get the mirror working Alucard. Give me force numbers and species and weapons count." Trevor states as he released the spear to let her take it. "Sypha stays on her job for now, Stela and I will fortify the point of entry."

As Stela was about to follow Trevor, she felt her brother grab her wrist.

"Wait, Stardust-"

"There's no time Adrien! We need to-"

"I was going to say to be careful." The dhampir gave his sister a small smile before turning to Trevor with a serious face. "You help her help to defend the entrance, but if she gets badly wounded I promise my father and his army will be the least of your worries."

"We're going to need more than your fancy new whip." Stela says as she pats the sword her brother had given her a few days prior that was strapped to her hip.

"I think we're going to see the size and disposition of the attacking force fairly quickly, Belmont." Alucard says as the ceiling shook again while Trevor was restocking himself with some throwing knives and a large sword.

"I'm forced to agree." The hunter replies. "Do you have any further suggestions?"

"Probably something that's going to keep us alive?" Stela suggests as she glanced up at the shaking ceiling.

"Are you asking for my advice?"

"We're working together Alucard, you're still a bastard but you're the bastard I chose to fight along side with in Gresit. You have a problem with any of that?"

For a moment Stela thought her brother was going to throw back some snarky retort, but instead a small smile came to his lips.

"None at all." He responds and Stela smiles.

"So what do you suggest?" Trevor asks. Alucard looks back to the cracked distance mirror with a frown.

"Using this to find Dracula's castle,  _ now _ . We're trapped in a box down here and we'll be eventually overwhelmed. We need to change the nature of the battle.

"Agreed." Trevor says with a nod. "We'll try and protect you as long as we can."

"Be careful!" Stela heard Alucard shout as she and Trevor ran towards the stairs.

The room shakes again violently as they climb up, causing them to nearly fall. Trevor then unravels his new whip and swings it to hoist himself up to the next flight as Stela runs up, gripping the bannister tightly to keep her balance.

"Need a lift?" The hunter yells from above.

"No need, you make sure the door stays close, I'm almost there!" Stela shouts back as the room shakes, nearly knocking her off balance. "On second thought, I could use a hand getting up!"

"I'm coming!" Stela jumps back as Trevor lands down next to her and quickly pulled her to his chest. "Alright, hold on tight."

"Don't drop me- SHIT!" Trevor practically leapt off the stairs and swung them both up to the second level with Stela clinging tightly to him.

Once they reach the top where the door was, Trevor released a shaken Stela and hurried off towards the shelves before returning moments later with a large board.

"We can use this to block the entrance, go grab a shelf!" He says as he passes Stela.

"Wait Trevor, the door-" Too late. Trevor soon realizes that the plank of wood was not going to help barricade the door, since it opened outwards.

"I guess locking it ourselves is out of the question?" Stela asks innocently.

"Shut up." Trevor mutters as he pushes the door open. "You're about to partake in your first monster fight with better training, are you ready?"

Stela nods as she hurried past him to exit the library before they closed the door behind them.

"How many do you think are up there?" She asks when Trevor checks to make sure the door is closed and stands beside her. "Three, four?"

"Maybe five, or six judging by the pounding from up there." He responds as the room shook again. "You think that Hearthstone will hold? Not even your brother could lift it."

"Probably, but not for long."

Stela could hear faint growling and snarling from above, and the whole room was now illuminated by moonlight. She gripped her spear tightly as she looks up at the long spiraling flight of stairs they had descended not two nights ago. This was happening now, this was really happening.

"Whatever happens, don't ever hesitate when you fight." Trevor says, breaking Stela out of her thoughts. "Are you ready?"

"No." Stela responds. "But let's get this over with."


	13. |•| Fire Drake's and Other Monstrosities |•|

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's been three months since I updated this, I am very sorry for not updating so much sooner. Recently in the last three months of 2019 I was working (seasonal job) and was too busy to do any writing for this story, since I was trying to focus and couldn't bring my laptop to work to watch and write this chapter out and I had school to focus on as well
> 
> Luckily for me this semester, I am only taking one class so I have some free days to use to write and draw, so maybe expect some new chapters in the season 2 timeline
> 
> Also, writing the battle scenes in this episode was a bit difficult so next chapter might take a while

The room was shaking even more now as Trevor and Stela ran up the stairs, and keeping their balance was hard enough since they were trying to keep themselves from toppling backwards and from getting thrown over the side of the staircase.

"Who the fuck thought it was a great idea to build such a long flight if stairs?!"

"You weren't complaining earlier!"

"We were walking down, not running up while the whole fucking room shook!"

As if to prove her point, the room shook again. They heard a loud bellowing noise and looked up in time to see a giant bull creature come falling down from above, it's teeth bared and ready to kill them.

"Hold on!" Trevor yelled as he grabbed Stela when the creature crashed onto their part of the stairs, causing the whole thing to collapse under them before he threw out his whip to keep them from falling.

"I don't enjoy being grabbed like this!" Stela yelled as they dangled over the ground.

"Just shut up and get ready to stab it, go for the back of the neck!" Without warning, Trevor released Stela.

She fell rather painfully onto the demon's back before she rolled right off, landing behind it and onto the floor behind it. She heard Trevor yell from above and looked up to see him swing himself onto the creature's back with his sword in hand. The beast gave a loud roar and began to swing its head wildly as Stela bolted out of the way to avoid getting trampled.

"Trevor!" She screamed as the beast threw Trevor off, his sword stuck in its neck as he crashed into the wall. As the demon walked towards the downed human, Stela unsheathed her sword and darted forward, plunging her weapon into it's back leg. "Come on! Come and kill me, it's me you want you giant piece of shit!" She screamed as the monster started to turn towards her, it's hands raised to smack her.

"Stela move!" Trevor had managed to get up and rolled between the beasts legs, tackling Stela out of the way as the monster's fists came down to where they were earlier. "Don't do that again!"

"Then stop getting yourself thrown like a rag doll!" She retorts as the demon moves towards them. Before either of them could move, the floor under them collapsed again, sending the three of them to the bottom floor.

The fall was enough to knock Trevor’s sword out of the beat’s neck, and Trevor took this opportunity to grab it. When it tried to smash him, he leapt over it’s fist and managed to snatch up his weapon before slicing at the ankle Stela had stabbed earlier. The bull gave a dying cry as it fell to the floor, now dead. Trevor stands up as Stela moves to retrieve her sword before she hears a loud screech and looks up to see something jump down towards them. She wasn’t even sure what the hell it was, but it certainly needed to be killed quickly.

“Trevor, we have more company!” SHe yells when she hears more screeches and looks up to see more monsters crawling towards them.

“Little busy!” The hunter yells back as he was fighting the large goat horned creature before it knocked the sword out of his hand and began attacking him with its staff. “Could use some help!”

Stela then remembers she still had the spear and looks around wildly for it as Trevor began to fight with his new whip. She spotted it several feet away near the bull demon’s body and bolts over to snatch it up from the pool of blood. With a loud yell, Stela charged at the monster and smacked it hard with the end of her weapon, drawing it's attention. Trevor took this opportunity to attempt to disarm the creature wrapping his whip around it's staff and arm and knocking it to the floor. He was about to tell Stela to stab it when he heard a loud roar from above to see a large reptile creature coming down towards them and getting ready to fire at them.

“Fire drake, just what we need in an underground hole full of paper.” He mutters as he quickly stood up. "Stella, get down!"

Stela looks up and gasps when she sees the large creature barreling towards them as Trevor swung his whip at it. She dove towards the floor as she hears something explode and the force knocks them both towards the door and into the library.

"Oh god this is going to be a pain to scrub out." Stela groans as she sits up. "Did you even know it did that?"

"If I did I probably wouldn't have done it." Trevor responds as he sits up. "Probably it's just as well that I didn't get to play with the whip when I was a kid."

They both hear a loud screech and look up to see the demon from earlier rush in. Trevor made a grab for the whip handle, only for the creature to knock it from his reach until it rolled away and slipped off the side of the stairs.

"Get the whip, I'll hold it off!" Trevor yells at Stela as he swung his legs up kick the creature and grabbed it's spear to break it in two. "Go!"

"Not leaving you!" She yells back as she grabbed her own spear and took a swing at the monster.

Trevor took the chance to grab the snapped end of the spear to jam it into the creature's chest as Stela stabbed it in the back with a yell. The demon made a loud choking noise as it spat up blood as the two wedged their weapons deeper.

"When you get back to whatever steaming underworld shit hole you came from, you tell them there are still Belmonts up here!" Trevor snarls before yanking his new weapon out of the dying creature. Stella yanks her spear out as well, moving out of the way for it to stumble back and fall on its knees before falling over.

_ Well that was quick. _ Stela thought as she wiped the spear end on her tunic.  _ But... weren't there two other monsters or did they die in the explosion from the fire Drake? _

As if to answer her question, she saw Trevor spin around and fling two knives towards the door before Stela saw a large black bird creature knock him right over the railing of the stairs.

"Trevor!" She yelled as he managed to snag onto it's legs before dropping himself onto one of the walkways several yards away. "Hang on, I'm coming!"

The moment she managed to reach the walkway, the bird demon managed to knock Trevor right onto the one below. Stela gave a frustrated groan as she followed, gripping her spear tightly. Trevor was now repeatedly whacking the creature with the broken staff before he managed to stab it in the head with one of the broken pieces and shove it over the side. So much for him needing her help. Before she could say something, there was a loud snarl and a large creature looking similar to the fire drake but with fur and looked a lot more like a bat dropped in front of them.

“You’re an evil looking bastard aren’t you?” Trevor asked and grinned. “Well I’m armed with a-” He then realizes he’s holding the blunt end of the spear. “A stick! So, I’ll understand if you want to run away now.”

“Move!” Stela yelled as she grabbed the back of his shirt as the monster charged towards them. “And keep it away from Sypha!”

“Easier said than done!” Trevor yells back as he turns them around so he was the one pulling her to the bookshelves. “Go look for the whip, I’ll distract it!”

“But-”

“Look for Morning Star now, argue with me later!”

Stela honestly wasn’t sure where the whip had fallen, so it had to be near one of the bookshelves, but which ones? As she searched frantically from where she was sure it had fallen, she could hear the sound of that monster battling Trevor and bookshelves being destroyed. She heard a roar and ran to the bannister to see the monster getting thrown off and diving towards Adiran and Sypha. She saw something fly and the beast exploded into fire several feet over the two and saw Trevor run to the broken ledge with the whip in his hand.

“You found it!” She exclaims and the hunter looks back up at her.

“You alright?” He calls back and she nods as the room shakes slightly before it shook suddenly, dropping wood and dirt around them. "Better head down to the others."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> We finally have a release date for season 3: March 5th! Any chapters focused on the events of this new season will have to be on hold because last thing I want to do is spoil the new season for those who haven't seen it yet. I'll maybe start posting the first of them in April or May


End file.
